101–110 of 127 posts
In college in NZ I wrote a simple compiler for the 6802 with some friends, it fit in 2k (just) .... we called ourselves "uSoft" (with a greek mu - but we were cross-compiling from cards, no room for a mu) .... the next year we heard of some jokers in the US who were using our name, and pffft! they only had a basic interpreter, so lame! Needless to say the jokers in the US became multi-billionaires, we were stuck on t…
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Just for modern perspective... you can use SDCC. It's an open-source optimizing C compiler targeting small microprocessors like the Z80 and various others. The project itself is terribly run--the maintainers recently pushed out an ABI change which broke everyone's code, but released it as a minor version bump. This ABI change did speed up the code, but that's small consolation to anyone who ended up with broken code.…
> The project itself is terribly run--the maintainers recently pushed out an ABI change which broke everyone's code, but released it as a minor version bump. When was this? What version? Thanks.
In college in NZ I wrote a simple compiler for the 6802 with some friends, it fit in 2k (just) .... we called ourselves "uSoft" (with a greek mu - but we were cross-compiling from cards, no room for a mu) .... the next year we heard of some jokers in the US who were using our name, and pffft! they only had a basic interpreter, so lame! Needless to say the jokers in the US became multi-billionaires, we were stuck on t…
You can at least claim to be a founder of Microsoft at parties and stuff.
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This article refers to the 6800 which isn't the same. Also, that's a 68008 (with the 'simplified' 8bit data and smaller address bus). Both somebow 8bit :-P
It certainly made it easier to wire up :) I would not want to hand-wire a 32 bit databus.
It is only hsndy when considering interfacing with just older 68xx peripheral chips.
Note: I did wirewrap the full bus for a 68000 schoolproject, plus the address split for high and low addresses (like an odd/even rom) IIRC.
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I just don't think any of the 8-bits made good compiler targets. At least not C compilers. Not enough registers, even in the 6809.
These processors were designed for assembly programming, hence their very CISC-y ISA. Some 8-bitters designed for compiled languages would be the AVR family.
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Be careful -- they're rapidly going obsolete. No one wants to fab old EPROM processes, and no one wants to package PLCCs anymore. If it's neither of those, I think you've got a bit more time. There are "compatibles" out there, and some of them are very good indeed, but they're not without their hassles.
I think I have a 68HC11 sitting around that I picked up for a project and never used. I wonder if it's worth anything?
And, yes, the 68HC11 was on December's EOL list, so I hope anyone who was using it in products has a plan! (Or hire my company, we fix things like that... not that it's the most fun work in the world, we have other things we'd rather be doing....)
Serious question, why is this on Hacker News? is it a classic of some sort?
The 6800 definitely is a classic, yes. The classics included at least 6800, 6502, 8080, and Z80. (To some extent 8085, but as an "expanded" 8080 the Z80 dominated.) The four of them powered the most iconic systems at the start of the microprocessor "takeover" at the end of the seventies (at the same time as I entered my electronics education). The 6800 was kind of left behind by the others eventually, but was used in…
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Back then people wrote assembly language themselves. At 1-2Mhz, sometimes Khz, it was how one got performant code. Addressing flexibility makes assembly language programming practical for people to do. Check out the 6809 for a beautiful ISA and probably one of the most powerful 8 bit CPUs.
> Back then people wrote assembly language themselves. Not only this. It made for more compact code, and memory was very expensive. So expensive that 64kB was practically unheard of. In 1980, 4kB would cost $100 or so. If I read it correctly, the original board with the 6800 was shipped with 128B.
No lie! I recall paying $200 for a Godbout 12KB (static RAM) board kit (96 1K chips to hand-socket) for my H-8 (8080; Heathkit included no RAM). Later added another 12KB for an incredible 24KB total. Only a few years later at a swap meet I landed two 16KB manufactured boards for only $50!
It was the first CPU of the Macintosh under Raskin. When Jobs took over the switched to the 68k.
https://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&stor...