This forum...

[Chris Savage]

...was requested by a member for the discussion of older computers.

New hardware builds, such as my Z80 Retro Computer and 6502 Computer Kit still have their own place.

Members building new projects can still discuss these in the appropriate forums:
Microcontrollers
Processors / CPUs
Microcontrollers & Processors
Member Projects

Please post in the appropriate forum. Thanks!

[granz]

...was requested by a member for the discussion of older computers.

New hardware builds, such as my Z80 Retro Computer and 6502 Computer Kit still have their own place.

Members building new projects can still discuss these in the appropriate forums:
Microcontrollers
Processors / CPUs
Microcontrollers & Processors
Member Projects

Please post in the appropriate forum. Thanks!

Annnnddddd.... Just to be goofy, I'll post a retro project involving Micro-controllers, Microprocessors, Member Projects, and anything else I can think of.   

Thanks Chris, this seems like a great place to post some of the retro-computing projects on which I want to work. First up will be that 6802 Nano computer that I mentioned in my request for help (thanks again, Chris.) (The 6802 came out in 1977, so that should qualify as retro. )

[Chris Savage]

Annnnddddd.... Just to be goofy, I'll post a retro project involving Micro-controllers, Microprocessors, Member Projects, and anything else I can think of.   

Thanks Chris, this seems like a great place to post some of the retro-computing projects on which I want to work. First up will be that 6802 Nano computer that I mentioned in my request for help (thanks again, Chris.) (The 6802 came out in 1977, so that should qualify as retro. )

Hopefully this will give you a place for these things. If things start to get messy, let me know and we'll make you a moderator of this forum.

As for the 6802, I never used that specific CPU, however, I did use the 6809 CPU and the 68HC11 MCU. Just didn't care much for the Motorola architecture. I preferred the 65xx over that and the Z80 overall.

[granz]

As for the 6802, I never used that specific CPU, however, I did use the 6809 CPU and the 68HC11 MCU. Just didn't care much for the Motorola architecture. I preferred the 65xx over that and the Z80 overall.

I guess that my love for the 6800/02 came from my teaching job, back in 1990. The trainer that we used, for most of the labs, was the Heathkit ET-3400 (https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/nzw1vv/heathkit_et3400_microcomputer_learning_system_1978/.) The 6800 CPU was introduced in 1974, but the ET-3400 didn't come out until 1978 - still quite a while before my teaching job. The students were complaining about having to study an old CPU and weren't interested in my talking about starting out with the basics - they wanted new stuff. So, I went to the city's Public Works department and they let me borrow one of their new traffic light computers - yep, it used the Motorola 6800! 

I introduced it by talking about how the traffic lights along Boulevard of the Allies in downtown Pittsburgh were newly computerized, to coordinate all the lights along the boulevard to improve traffic flow. They were interested in this brand new technology - then I told them that the brand new traffic light computers were based on the same CPU that they were learning about. They were suitably impressed. 

[Chris Savage]

I got started with the 6502 originally. First in the Apple II and later in the VIC-20, for which I had a utility cartridge with an assembler. The 6809 was in both the CoCo 1 and 2 from Radio Shack (Tandy), but I wasn't a big fan of the display. After getting into the C=64/C=128 I learned that the C=128 had the Z80 CPU inside, but I didn't really have any development tools for it, so it wasn't until I got an EPROM programmer (Needham's PB-10) that I really started experimenting at a low level with it. The rest, as they say, is history. Ironically, I've NEVER owned a Sinclair ZX80. 

[JKnightandKARR]

Cool, can put my DOS laptops here.

[Chris Savage]

Cool, can put my DOS laptops here.

Of course. Start a thread...