An 8-bit microprocessor developed by MOS Technology, introduced at a trade show in 1975 and in revised form still in contemporary production. In the mid to late 70s the processor sold for a mere $25 while Intel’s 8080 and Motorola’s 6800 cost nearly $200. As an example the popular successor still in use today is the 65C816. Another example the W65C02S6TPG-14 offers an extended set of instructions and a clock speed of up to 14 MHz (instead of the original 1 MHz).
Used most notably in:
- Apple II
- Commodore PET
- Commodore 64
- BBC Micro
- Nintendo Entertainment System
- Atari 2600 / Atari VCS
The MOS 6502 processor could address 64KB of memory while the stack size was limited to 256 bytes with six registers and one of those available to perform arithmetic and logic operations.