How many transistors in the 6502 processor?

Zero page is not a shortcoming, but instead one of the 6502's better features. It basically works out to giving you optimized access to a segment of RAM -- almost like 256 extra registers. Other chips have used a similar scheme, including the TMS 9900 and friends (like the 9995, which even keeps this RAM onboard for really high speed access). The stack is truly a bummer, but there's software ways around that. FWIW, the later 65CE02 deals with both these issues. You can "move" zero page anywhere in memory you want on the fly (so that you can pick a memory page and optimize access to it), and the stack pointer is now 16-bit. The 65CE02's most well-known usage was in its guise as the CSG 4510 in the mythical Commodore 65 (see http://www.retrobits.com/ckb/secret/65.html ). -- ----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu -- The world only beats a path to your door when you're in the bathroom. ------