6502, assembly and you. Part 1

Greetings Program!

A friend of mine is quite the computer historian, spinning grand tales
of old silicon, and the heady days of computing in the 1970’s. I
should more properly introduce him as a caretaker of knowledge. It’s
difficult to speak to him on any subject and not have him surprise you
with something you didn’t know on the matter.

At any rate, on his most recent visit to my place of employ, he had a
mischevious grin on his face when he arrived. When probed further on
the source of the twinkling in his eye, he said that he had decided it
was time for us to learn assembly!

“Not just any assembly, either.” He continued, “This is 1970’s
stuff, 8 bit processing with the 6502.”

Surely you recognize the 6502? No? Neither did I. My archival friend
did enlighten us:

At the time, the 6800 was the top dog of the day, but it’s pricetag of $300
made it the purvey of kings and large companies.

An intrepid lad named Chuck Peddle did try to Peddle the 6800 to
gentlefolk of lesser means, but their rejoinder was always the
same. They would love such a processor, but only at a much more modest price.

Peddle began to design such a substrate of silica, and
brought his idea to the management team at Motorola. They laughed into
their cognac at his suggestion that they should make a processor,
since their flagship product had unfurled their flag so well.

On to MOS flew most of the design team at Motorola, en masse! Where
they completed work on the 6501, a totally new design with a sultry price tag,
and pin-compatible with the 6800 to boot!

The management team at Motorola sputtered and spewed black clouds from
their havana cigars, and sued at once! And so, our modest friend the 6502
was made, and made “Lawsuit Compatible”.

From this chip sprung many new computers of which I’m sure you are
familiar with: the Apple ][, the NES, the Commodore VIC-20, the Commodore 64,
and your old friend, Atari 2600.

Click the chip to read more of this fascinating tale, and adieu for
now, but I will post more this weekend on the nature of programming
the 8-bit beast and all that I have learned from our friend.

Part two, are you ready?