Ruby 6502

My 6502 pages:

For me, the 6502 processor is something of an icon. It was one of the first processors I used to write programs on and the first one I experienced assembly language programming with.

That experience started in 1978, so 2018 marked my 40th, or ruby anniversary of my involvement with computers and specifically the 6502.

The first computer I used was an HP9830A which ran BASIC and was wheeled round the schools at the time in Edinburgh, the 2nd computer? well – it was something at the end of an acoustic 110 baud modem connected to a Teletype model 33. (It was an Interdata 7/32 and possibly more on that later)

After that – the Apple II

And the Apple II had a 6502 inside it. Better than that, I could take the lid off and see it!

Over the next few years I used Apple IIs at school and university then BBC Micros (another 6502 system), designed and built my own 6502 based systems for use in industrial control systems and have generally stayed in the 6502 “camp” over the years (Back then, there was the great 6502 vs Z80 wars – well maybe some active discussions, much like Vi vs Emacs today. I use Vi/Vim, not that it matters)

And so now, a four decades later I’ve decided to rekindle my interest in the 6502 and build my own little 6502 system. It’s naturally called the Ruby 6502 and this page will act as a holding page for my blog entries keeping them all linked together.

Apologies if you came here looking for the Ruby programming language on the 6502. That’s really something completely different…

Comments

Ruby 6502 — 7 Comments

  1. Hi, my first project was 6502, with simple kernal (software) too download a program and start it from terminal PC program. It still working both hardware and software.

    73 de Ulf

  2. Great project, good talking to you on the Facebook, really intrested in your approach. Its similar to the z80ctrl and z80mbc2 projects I am working with, but with the 6502..

    • Thanks for the feedback. I had no real “goal” for this when I started other than as a sort of 40th anniversary project with the 6502. In the past 6 months of tinkering though it’s changed somewhat and I’ve put together some ideas for the next version once I’m happy with all the software for this one. Your z80 systems look good though.

      Cheers,

      -Gordon

    • I use the ca65 assembler from the cc65 package and all my development is done under Linux. It also includes a disassembler too, although I’ve never used it.

      -Gordon

  4. Great project, I am very interested in building 6502 Ruby board, Are you planing to release the schematic and the software files? Or maybe sell it in a kit.

    • I plan on doing all that – schematics, kit, software, etc. I’m currently working on a new version with the 65816 processor though and that’s probably the one I’ll be supporting though – however it will run all the 6502 code without any issues.

      -G