Welcome to the 6502 Project

My son Zachary approached me and told me that he would like to learn electronics.  I spent some time trying to give him resources, books and some hands on to help him in the learning experience.  In the interim, I was reading up on stuff that I had not tried or used in years.  Then along came a book by Steve Ciarcia called Build your own Z80 computer.  I was fascinated by the the idea even if it was 30 plus years old.  Next, I started looking on Jameco's website to see if any of the parts to build such a beast were even available.  To my surprise, most of them were.  This set the gears in motion.  The only problem I had was that I didn't know machine language for the Z80 processor.  I did however, have some experience with the 6502 and 6510 processors of my early Commodore days in the 80's.  All this lead me to some Google searches on how to build a computer using a 6502 processor and to my very pleasant surprise, there were people doing it.  It wasn't until I read a blog called Blondihacks by Quinn Dunki that I decided that I would try to give it a go.  I would recommend you read her stuff.  It is laid out well and she is doing a great project.  I cannot go on without mentioning another great website dedicated to all things 6502 and their related families and support chips.  That site is called 6502.org and I would hope you would check what they have to offer.  They have some great stuff!!!

The only real problem with doing a project like this is, not having a defined goal in mind before starting.  Without having that goal in mind, I am sure that getting to the end of it ends up a lot like herding cats.  But I don't have a particular use in mind for the project other than the learning experience.  So let's just hope that the cats take me to interesting places.

If you have advice, constructive criticism or encouragement please feel free to email me to xavier(REMOVETHISTEXT)@gtec.com.