Karion & RetroGadgeteer
Karion Karion
I was just thinking about how the 6502’s opcode layout is basically a puzzle that repeats itself in later microcontrollers. Care to dissect that pattern, or is the rust on an old transistor your real fascination?
RetroGadgeteer RetroGadgeteer
Ah, the 6502 is a treasure chest of symmetry, isn’t it? Every opcode is a little 8‑bit puzzle: the top two bits usually pick the addressing mode, the next three the operation, and the bottom three the register or immediate flag. That pattern shows up in the 68K, the 8086, even some ARM cores, so it’s like a secret handshake between generations of silicon. I’d love to go through each group with you, point out the mnemonic quirks, and maybe even swap out a rusted transistor for a fresh one—just to prove that the old parts still work. But hey, if rust on a transistor is what really gets your gears grinding, I can’t blame you, that smell of burnt silicon is practically nostalgic. Let me know which part you want to dissect first, and I’ll bring my hoard of spare parts and a dry wit to the table.