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The MOS 6502 Processor
The 6502 is an 8-bit processor designed by MOS Technology in 1975, based on the design of the Motorola 6800. When it was introduced it was the least expensive full featured CPU on the market by far, at about 1/6th the price, or less, of competing designs from larger companies such as Motorola and Intel. It was nevertheless faster than most of them, and, along with the Zilog Z80, sparked off a series of computer projects that would eventually result in the home computer revolution of the 1980s. The 6502 design was originally second-sourced by Rockwell and Synertek and later licensed to a number of companies; it is still made for embedded systems.
 
Unlike the Intel 8080 and its kind, the 6502 had very few registers. It was an 8-bit processor with 16-bit address bus. Inside was one 8-bit data register (accumulator), two 8-bit index registers and an 8-bit stack pointer. When the 6502 was introduced, RAM was actually faster than CPUs, so it made sense to optimize for RAM access rather than increase the number of registers on a chip.
 
6502 processors were used in a variety of home computers of the early 80s, for example in:
References:  Documentation archive at 6502.org
MOS MPS 6502
MOS MPS 6502 Top Side
MOS
MPS 6502
3878
MOS MPS 6502 Back Side
PHILIPPINES
MS 502
This CPU is built in my Commodore CBM PET computer from 1978.
 
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Core Frequency:1 MHz
Board Frequency:1 MHz
Data bus (ext.):8 Bit
Address bus:16 Bit
Voltage:5 V
Manufactured:week 38/1978
Made in:Philippines
Package Type:Plastic
DIP-40
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MOS 6502
MOS 6502 Top Side
MOS
6502
4084
MOS 6502 Back Side
HONG KONG
HH324552
2
This CPU is built in my Commodore CBM 1541 disk drive for the C64. The 1541 has its own CPU, used as a controller. This made this drive comparably fast and opened posibilities for even more speed enhancements from third party manufacturers. Some specific programs for the C64 even used the floppy CPU as a co-processor :-)
 
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Core Frequency:1 MHz
Board Frequency:1 MHz
Data bus (ext.):8 Bit
Address bus:16 Bit
Voltage:5 V
Manufactured:week 40/1984
Made in:Hong Kong
Package Type:Plastic
DIP-40
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MOS 6502 A
MOS 6502 A Top Side
MOS
6502 A
4682
MOS 6502 A Back Side
HONG KONG
HH433714
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Core Frequency:2 MHz
Board Frequency:2 MHz
Data bus (ext.):8 Bit
Address bus:16 Bit
Voltage:5 V
Manufactured:week 46/1982
Made in:Hong Kong
Package Type:Plastic
DIP-40
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MOS 6502AD
MOS 6502AD Top Side
MOS
6502AD
4585 S
MOS 6502AD Back Side
HONG KONG
HH402101
2
Donated by Jorge Segovia. Thanks a lot!  
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Core Frequency:2 MHz
Board Frequency:2 MHz
Data bus (ext.):8 Bit
Address bus:16 Bit
Voltage:5 V
Manufactured:week 45/1985
Made in:Hong Kong
Package Type:Plastic
DIP-40
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MOS 6502 B
MOS 6502 B Top Side
MOS
6502 B
5082
MOS 6502 B Back Side
HONG KONG
HH475714
This CPU is built in my Commodore VC 20 computer from 1982.
 
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Core Frequency:3 MHz
Board Frequency:3 MHz
Data bus (ext.):8 Bit
Address bus:16 Bit
Voltage:5 V
Manufactured:week 50/1982
Made in:Hong Kong
Package Type:Plastic
DIP-40
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