[HN Gopher] Reincarnating the 6502 Using Flexible TFT Tech for IoT ___________________________________________________________________ Reincarnating the 6502 Using Flexible TFT Tech for IoT Author : rbanffy Score : 50 points Date : 2022-05-09 17:50 UTC (5 hours ago) (HTM) web link (fuse.wikichip.org) (TXT) w3m dump (fuse.wikichip.org) | kken wrote: | >The chip achieved a maximum operating speed of 71.4 kHz (at | Vdd=3V/Vbias=6V) while consuming a maximum of 134.91 mW. | Likewise, the chip can run as low as 10 kHz at 2V while consuming | just 11.6 mW. | | That's really not that impressive, both in speed and power. You | can operate 8Bit MCUs clocked at ~50kHz at 100-200uW. | | I wonder what that the technology is good for? IGZO is good for | large area electronic with low leakage, so I guess it could be | used for sensor arrays and similar where you need distributed | circuits. Of course, IGZO is already used for display backplanes. | | For digital circuits, silicon will most likely beat it in power | and cost even for very small designs. | duskwuff wrote: | It doesn't help that the ag_6502 core they're using is designed | to accurately reproduce the behavior of the original part, not | to be space- or power-efficient. Results might have been better | with a more modern CPU design like SERV | (https://github.com/olofk/serv). | userbinator wrote: | As pointed out in the article, the 6502 is still widely used in | all sorts of embedded devices, but I suspect the 8051 is even | more popular. The 6502 has the advantage of somewhat simpler | design. | tenebrisalietum wrote: | 8051 has some really nice bit-level instructions. Everything | interesting for 6502 is typically on bit 7 because it's so easy | to test (BPL/BMI), or more rarely bit 6 which I think can be | easily tested with BIT, and you don't have anything like JBC | which jumps if a bit is set and clears it. | tom_ wrote: | Rockwell 6502s have bbr/bbs (branch on bit set/reset in a zp | address) - I think for use with io ports mapped into zero | page (they're not terribly useful otherwise). | buescher wrote: | They implemented their own complete design flow for flexible TFT. | That's pretty cool. I'm not so sure there's a real use case for a | 70 KHz flex 6502. Is "for IoT" the new "for developing | countries", a shorthand for "we don't have a practical or | profitable niche for this yet"? Cheap IoT SoCs already have great | processors for very competitive prices. | mikewarot wrote: | It's now possible to make a 6502 out of plastic?!? WOW | | Yes, they are making transistors out of plastic[1]. "We coat | everything on that, then peel it off and reuse the glass a | carriers which means we can use silicon equipment." | | That they manage to get this to work at all is amazing. I view | this as a technology demonstrator more than anything else. It | looks like there's a pent up demand for low end processing that | this might fill. | | Who knows, maybe Sam Zeloof can use this process in his garage. | 8) | | 1 - https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/first-300mm-fab-for-the-uk/ | qwertox wrote: | Reminds me of microfiches [0], which sometimes can be seen in | movies when people go to a library to read old, archived | newspapers. | | My dad had a catalog of spare parts from Bosch and a reader, and | I loved to spend time with it to look at the diagrams. This was | pre-internet days, so this was the way how large catalogs were | distributed. | | The precision with which they were created was impressive. | | These wafers look similar. I wonder how the information density | would compare if some of those chips were storage and a couple of | them could be used to display the content of the storage. | | [0] | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microform#/media/File:Microfic... | WhitneyLand wrote: | I learned to code machine language on the VIC-20's 6502 when I | was 13. I think my parents paid about $200 for the computer. | | It was thrilling to learn to make things even with basic, but to | do much with graphics or games at the time required direct 6502 | coding to get decent performance. | | Good memories though. So different coding only for joy with no | stress or deadlines. | frozenport wrote: | There was always a trade off between flexibility and consistent | electronic operation. If you bend the chip too much it stops | working. If the chip is too rigid its not interesting. | | Would be good if the write up could give some context into the | bend-ability of this chip. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-05-09 23:00 UTC)