Attention 1802 fans...

Eric Smith wrote: I'll say. And a bit of 1802 trivia: The 1802 was used in quite a number of Amateur radio ("ham") satellites. It was one of the first relatively "rad-hard" micros from what I remember reading, due in large part to its CMOS construction. I guess those days there were a few PMOS CPUs (8008, 8080) and a few NMOS CPUs (Z80, 6502, 9900JL), and exactly one CMOS CPU -- the CDP1802. So it was 1802 or bust. :) I don't recall hearing about commercial and military satellites, but I'm guessing they also used this chip extensively for a time. I suppose if e-bay prices go high enough for the chips, you can always launch a mission to recover one of those sats for the chip salvage. ;) An observation about the 1802. Most micros' instruction sets I remember from those days tended to be either simple and likeable for their elegant minimalism (6502, 6800), or were complex and irregular, but likeable because of really neat and powerful instructions (Z80 w/CPIR, LDDR, XTHL etc.), or interesting for just being plain weird (9900). I remember pegging every micro of the day into one of those camps (simple, complex, weird) except one: 1802. The 1802 is the only one that seemed to me to be elegant, simple, and clean and yet so weird that it must have been the product of a completely alien intelligence. Perhaps one that GLOs in the dark... No doubt at any rate the 1802 was interesting and unique. It's great that folks on the list care more about seeing this rare gear see use than fall into disuse as part of a "collection". that BLO's. ;)