Talk:MOS Technology 6502

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FOLDOC WP:PLAGIARISM checked ~Kvng (talk) 18:15, 4 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Number of transistors?[edit]

The article states (in the infobox) that the 6502 had 3510 transistors. This seems to hide an important detail:

"The 6502 chip is made up of 4528 transistors (3510 enhancement transistors and 1018 depletion pullup transistors)."

This is mentioned even in the references quoted, like this amazing work of art.

I think this should be mentioned in the infobox. They are transistors on the die, and therefore need to be mentioned in a count. However, they are not "logic transistors". Should this simply be noted on a separate line in the box? Maury Markowitz (talk) 11:44, 12 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Sales "in the 100's of millions" out of date[edit]

The article claims that the 65C02/65xx family continues to be widely used, with "with estimated production volumes in the hundreds of millions".

The linked reference is to the Western Design Centre website. The actual paragraph there says: "...Annual volumes in the hundreds (100's) of millions of units keep adding in a significant way to the estimated shipped volumes of five (5) to ten (10) billion units. With 200MHz+ 8-bit W65C02S and 100MHz+ 8/16-bit W65C816S processors coming on line in ASIC and FPGA forms, we see these annual volumes continuing for a long, long time. The 65xx brand is probably the only processor family that has remained loyal to its ISA over the last 33 years."

The last 33 years since 1975, start of the '65xx brand', means this was written in 2008, making it 14 years out of date.

That website redirects you to a newer WDC website, which contains a revised statement: "Through the last 30+ years as one of the most popular microprocessor architectures of all time the 65xx brand is estimated to have over six billion embedded 65xx processors shipped and is growing by hundreds of millions of units per year, provided by WDC and its licensees."

The relevant text on that page looks like a rehash of the original site's text. The '30+ years' looks like a rehash of the '33 years', aimed to make it timeless so they don't have to worry about changing the website. So it's also not proven to be current and is likely out of date.

All in all, there needs to be better evidence that the 65C02/65xx family sells these quantities per annum, either in parts or as licenced IP.

Or the statement's wrong and should be removed - not just removing the quantities but also the claim of popularity and any volumes.

Since this applies to the 65C02, I have posted this on the Talk page there also. I did that a week or so ago but had no replies. ToaneeM (talk) 18:57, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Using the weak ref we have, I think it is safe and robust to say that billions of these processors have been shipped. Documenting a more exact number or shipments per year will need ongoing attention and is potentially WP:PROMO. ~Kvng (talk) 15:57, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Instruction table layout[edit]

Should the instruction table have the rows 000xxx00 to 111xxx11 (approximately corresponding to instructions) and the columns xxx000xx to xxx111xx (approximately corresponding to addressing modes)? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Qalle2 (talkcontribs) 22:45, 12 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps something like this (updated link). -Qalle2 (talk) 02:03, 13 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
That's an interesting table but it might only be valuable for hard-core 6502 people. The current table seems fine. Johnuniq (talk) 02:50, 13 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Tamagotchi probably did not use a 6502[edit]

The Wikipedia page states that the Tamagotchi used a 6502 and links to someones blogpost claiming it uses a 6502 with no evidence. Many pages, such as http://tama.loociano.com/, claims the original Tamagotchi uses a CMOS E0C6S46, which is more likely given its specs with, among other things, a controller for a LCD. Bjanders (talk) 17:47, 15 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The original Tamagotchi (P1) used E0C6S46, but a later version ("Tama-Go"?) used a 6502-derived GPLB5X processor. [1] [2] Krótki (talk) 09:22, 23 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

74158[edit]

"Peddle suggested that anyone that actually required this style of access could implement it with a single 74158." I don't see how that would work with just one, the 74158 is a quad 2-input mux, the bus is 16 bit. The source doesn't say "single" either, just "a". Someone with better knowledge of the topic, please fix Aecho6Ee (talk) 08:04, 12 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Yes it looks like you need four of them. More usual would be tristate buffers like the 74367, but the MUX are fine, too. Many of the early chips, and I didn't look up this one, could barely drive one TTL gate. Gah4 (talk) 21:05, 12 November 2023 (UTC)[reply]