Questions tagged [chip]
General questions about computer chips and chipsets in retro hardware. Use a specific chip’s tag instead if available.
94
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How to interface with W65C51 UART
I want to build my own computer with retro-ic's. One of those ic's that I want to use is the W65C51 from Western Design Center. I am trying to connect it to a Arduino to learn how to interface with ...
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How did the C64 bitmap layout save transistors?
The Commodore 64 bitmap mode video memory layout is, from a programmer's viewpoint, odd; instead of a linear sequence of bytes, the first 8 bytes are stacked vertically, then the next 8, and so on.
It ...
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Did the NES CPU save die area by omitting BCD?
The NES CPU was a copy of the 6502 with the BCD circuitry removed. As I understand it, this modification was motivated by a theory that BCD was the only part of the 6502 that was actually patented, so ...
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The works of Frontier Manufacturing
Having spent the last however many decades believing Commodore Semiconductor Group was a simple rename of MOS Technology, I just watched a video – quite interesting in its own right – which casually ...
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What process node enabled the 6502 to reach 2 MHz? [duplicate]
The original version of the 6502 was rated for 1 MHz, but before the end of the decade, the CPU was available in a 2 MHz version. Presumably what changed was Dennard scaling: make the transistors ...
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Did Commodore have an alternative chip company acquisition target?
One pf the pivotal historical events of the 8-bit computer industry was the acquisition by Commodore of MOS Technology in 1976. This gave Jack Tramiel the vertical integration he wanted, and led ...
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VIC 6560, which parts do what?
I'm interested in the design of the VIC, the video and sound chip in the Vic-20. (Not too be confused with the VIC-II, which has been discussed elsewhere on the site.) I haven't been able to find an ...
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Did ROM chips jump from 8K to 32K?
This is a question about mask ROM (not EPROM) chips of the 8-bit era.
The size of DRAM chips increased by factors of 4, so there were 4kbit chips, then 16kbit, 64kbit, 256kbit etc. The natural width ...
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Where to find datasheets for MOS (Commodore) 85xx chips?
It seems difficult to find any detailed technical information online for the 85xx chips used in later Commodore 8-bit computers. For example, there's an excellent archive at http://www.6502.org/...
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When did work begin on the VIC-II?
The VIC-II, the video chip used in the Commodore 64, was the most sophisticated video chip of any 8-bit personal computer. I'm curious about how long it took to design.
According to Wikipedia
In ...
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Did anyone use quarter-bad RAM chips?
There was a time in the early 80s when 64k RAM chips had a significant defect rate, such that half-bad ones could be obtained at a discount. Some computer manufacturers such as Sinclair and Tandy took ...
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Did any 8-bit device ever merge a CPU core?
Looking at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Commodore-64-1541-Floppy-Drive-04.jpg I started thinking the following:
There are too many chips in that drive. It is crying out for a ...
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Why doesn't the Acorn Electron use fast page mode?
The Acorn Electron, trying to provide 32K of RAM as cheaply as possible, uses four 64k chips, for a 4-bit data bus. Obviously, this involves trading away some performance.
(In all the following ...
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Did any 8-bit computers use 16kx4 RAM chips?
An 8-bit computer wanting 64K of RAM, could most straightforwardly use eight 64kx1 DRAM chips (64kbit, 1 data line). The Commodore 64 initially did this, but in the mid-80s, the cost-reduced redesign ...
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How did the Fairchild Channel F provide a 2K frame buffer?
The Fairchild Channel F, released in 1976, was the first modern game console, in the sense of being the first one to accept games as software, rather than just modular configuration switches.
Looking ...
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