PragmatIC Semiconductor has announced it has produced a flexible version of the 6502 processor, the iconic design that began the personal computer revolution.
The company’s flexible 6502 was laid out and manufactured in fewer than two weeks, showing the game-changing ability of its FlexIC Foundry to support the accelerated realisation of semiconductor hardware. A second iteration has already been taped out to optimise pinout, footprint and speed, using an agile design approach that would never be achievable with the high cost and long lead times of silicon fabrication.
“We are delighted to have made a flexible 6502, the processor that is credited with creating the personal computer revolution,” said Scott White, CEO of PragmatIC Semiconductor. “The design symbolises one of our key beliefs that a new paradigm for semiconductors is required to enable innovators to build extraordinary electronics solutions that improve everyday life.”
“I see what PragmatIC is doing to be as transformational as what we did at MOS Technology back in the 1970s,” said Bill Mensch, founder of WDC, who created the original 6502 with Chuck Peddle. “In validating the 6502 design on their FlexIC Foundry, we can now extend the original goal of the design to support embedded processing for the Internet of Everything.”