Some questions that have been asked, may be asked or I just want to rant about:

• Do I think I have to add a lot to history and future of the 6500?
  • No, not really, but I need to get that ‘stuff’ out of my system.
• What is your experience in 6500 design in programming
  • Well, I got me a KIM-1 in 1978, followed by an Apple II in 1980 that served me well way into the 1990.
• Why is this Blog in English?
  • Well, the friend I started this for/with in the first place is a American, or more correct as Californian as it can be, notes, mails, etc. were naturally written and exchanged in English. Most of this site being a transcription of these notes and (mostly) verbatim copies of the mails, so why bother with (back) translation?
• What is that ‘Fat-Meter’
  • It’s a benchmark to meter relative complexity between 6500 variants. It tries to reduce complexity of changes into a single number by applying a rough rule of thumb quantification. For more details, please see its page.
• But I can’t find any 6500 musings, just those way too long MMF-10k  design notes
  • All other pages have been taken offline as the original project was never finished, leaving way too many open ends, so the site got repurposed.
• What is that MMF-10k?
  • It’s a 6502 based test-bed for a high performance I/O system modelled (somewhat) after the IBM /360’s I/O-Channel. An idea I’m carrying with me since the early 1980s, after really understanding how bad organized (and performing) microcomputer I/O is compared to what mainframes provided more than a decade before.
• A “Test-Bed”?
  • Yeah, the idea is to create a base hardware that allows to try out various configurations to create a great I/O system. A hardware is based around multiple 6502 CPU’s interacting via programmed DMA. Not necessarily fast, but as flexible as possible
• But why a CPU as limited as a 6502, an 8086 would be as retro, but way more capable?
  • Well, because the 6502 is the primitive beast it is. It’s designed as an embedded controller, reduced to a minimum to be as cheap as possible. That way I won’t fall for any shortcut provided by a more luxurious CPU. The 8086 on the other hand is about as great as a strict 16 bit CPU can be. Can’t think of much possible improvement (maybe one or two details). So yes, it would make a great choice, but it also has a way more sophisticated bus protocol, making DMA like sharing more complex and less deterministic – or to be more correct, less easy to predict. The 6502’s bus protocol in turn is, like the whole CPU reduced to a minimum, making memory sharing a way less complex task, thus increasing the chance of getting it done. Also, I really like the 6502 – despite it’s many shortcomings (Maybe I finish those other pages some day, as they are mainly about those deficits and how to improve them)
• The pages read like a lecture, are they?
  • No, not really. They are not only about unloading what circles since 40 years in my memory but also the way how I best work on ideas: trying to explain it to myself. It’s a bit like somewhere in between Feynman’s Problem-Solving Algorithm and his Technique of Learning. And better than arguing in my head – which is already a good start – is to explain it to someone else. Back when doing basic design for (usually rather large and mostly software) projects, my preferred tools of fleshing out an idea was a white board or flip-chart and a group waiting to hear the solution. An hour of talking and drawing was always way more productive than a month of writing. It was also important that I believed that the listeners were able to follow at the same level … otherwise I cought myself flunking out with easy to believe but “less well”-founded stuff. Y’all know the catchphrases Managers love, don’t you :))
• Ok, cool. Then again terms and details change between those pages?
  • Well, yeah, this isn’t a book, proofread by some lector (editor), but written along as I develop the idea. So when I change a term for some reason, I try to correct them retroactive – it I notice that change myself :)) Regarding Details, it’s often really later additions and changes. Adding details over time is part of the process and needs no change as it might break consistency. Thus if you like to reffer to any detail, try to use the latest incarnation :))