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From: jhs@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA
Newsgroups: net.micro.atari
Subject: 16-bit upgrade for the 800XL, 130XE, etc.
Message-ID: <8601272322.AA01905@mitre-bedford.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 27-Jan-86 18:22:00 EST
Article-I.D.: mitre-be.8601272322.AA01905
Posted: Mon Jan 27 18:22:00 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 29-Jan-86 04:20:09 EST
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The MITRE Corp., Bedford, MA
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Has anybody out there noted the news about the 65816 16-bit upgrade chip for
the 6502?

If what I read was correct, this will be a plug-in replacement for the 6502
which will extend the instruction set to handle a lot of 16-bit operations,
sort of a la the 6800 or 8088 families.  It is rumored that Apple is
considering using this to upgrade their model II series, and it has occurred
to me that it would be neat to drop one in my Atari 800XL.  If it is truly
upward compatible at the machine code level, that would open up a new world of
enhanced performance and flexibility, such as (I speculate) 16-bit relative
addressing, no more scrounging for zero-page addresses, etc.

Any comments from the truly knowledgeable?

						-John Sangster
						jhs at mitre-bedford.arpa