[TUHS] Fw: Re: Re: Any good 6502 assembly references?

Fri May 22 13:34:11 AEST 2026

On Thu, May 21, 2026 at 10:09 PM, Alexis via TUHS <
tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:
  Aiden Thomas via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org> writes:    > Hello!  > I'm fairly new here (just got on the mailing list). You guys got  > me  > really excited about continuing the legacy of computing. I'm  > planning  > out an interpreter onto my website, most likely 6502 based. So  > if  > anyone knew any good manuals or open sourced design documents of  > the  > 6502 CPU I'd love to hear! I'm also open to other architectures  > that  > would be fun to write interpreters for.    Well, this list is about _Unix_ history, not about computing  history in general, so your request as it stands might be  considered off-topic (but i'm not a mod).    That said, i'm interested in 6502 myself - as someone who actually  used 6502 machines at the time, e.g. the BBC Micro B - and would  be interested in a discussion about historic attempts to have a  Unix-ish system on the 6502. The Wikipedia page for GeckOS, which  is:    > a multitasking operating system for MOS 6502, and compatible  > processors such as the MOS 6510 ... [and] one of the few  > successful attempts to implement a Unix-like operating system on  > the 6502 architecture    has a section titled "Unix on 6502 architecture":    > While early versions of Unix ran on for example early model  > PDP-11  > computers that were comparable to Commodore 64 in terms of  > memory and  > processor performance there were architecture differences in  > terms of  > lack of a kernel mode, only 3 8-bit registers versus eight  > 16-bit  > general registers, and a fixed stack. These architectural  > limitations  > make implementing a Unix-like operating system on the 6502  > challenging.  >  > The possible non-exhaustive list of other viable Unix-like  > implementations on 6502 are LUnix, Asterix (Chris Baird) and ACE  > (Chris "Polar" Baird). GeckOS arguably is more complete in
   > respects, with ACE being stronger in terms of standard Unix  > utilities  > but weaker in the operating system area.      Alexis.

   the BBC Micro B
 I remember that family of computer, Elite was such a great game to deconstruct. Really showed how you can get around a lot of limitations of the hardware with ingenuity. Do you remember if the BBC Micro ever got flashed with a POSIX compliant OS?

   history in general, so your request as it stands might be
     considered off-topic (but i'm not a mod)

 Thank goodness! In seriousness, I'll be more careful about how I word my messages here. I was hoping to eventually emulate an older Unix system to better understand its workings, and the creators design decisions. Versus what the kernel book I have has as the standards in 2011. (college never really went into that) 

 Thank you for the OS's I can hopefully use in the future!

 Aiden Thomas
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