20 Nov
2009
20 Nov
'09
4:40 p.m.
Interesting. I wonder if Bill Mensch's take is different?
________________________________
From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org>
To: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Sent: Fri, November 20, 2009 10:16:25 AM
Subject: Re: Non-fake Apple 1 on ebay
Jules Richardson wrote:
> The 6502 to me always seemed to be a little
"brain dead" compared to the 8080.
Chuck Peddle told me a couple of months ago that the 6502 was never intended
to be a general-purpose microprocessor, it was designed to be a replacement
for hard-wired logic.
They had a die size target to hit to get to the price point they wanted
and pulled out things they thought were unnecessary for its use in that market.
In particular, the length of the registers. I had always wondered why they built
a microprocessor with an 8 bit stack pointer, when the previous 6800 design had
16.