Re: The 6502 is a dynamic CPU, the Z80 is a static one

From: Segher Boessenkool <segher_at_kernel.crashing.org>
Date: Mon, 4 May 2020 17:03:27 -0500
Message-ID: <20200504220327.GK31009_at_gate.crashing.org>
Hi!

On Mon, May 04, 2020 at 12:38:02PM -0500, Jim Brain wrote:
> On 5/4/2020 11:09 AM, Ruud_at_Baltissen.org wrote:
> >But what is so "dynamic" on the 6502? AFAIK it doesn't use
> >capacitors like a DRAM. Better AFAIK it only uses transistors,
> >something that has been proofed by this guy that built a 100%
> >compatible 6502 using only transistors.
> 
> MOS transistors have a capacitance.  In fact, the designer of the 
> Monster 6502 (the project you noted), talks about it:
> 
> "No; it's relatively slow. The MOnSter 6502 runs at about 1/20th the 
> speed of the original, thanks to the much larger capacitance of the 
> design. The maximum reliable clock rate is around 50 kHz. The primary 
> limit to the clock speed is the gate capacitance of the MOSFETs that we 
> are using, which is much larger than the capacitance of the MOSFETs on 
> an original 6502 die."

On several-micron silicon-gate processes (like what the 6502 uses), the
only "big" capacitance is the gate capacitance.

> The original NMOS design relies on the fact that the charge on a wire 
> will continue to live there for 300nS or so, as part of the operation of 
> the 6502.

The charge on the gates.  Yup.

> On the 65C02, such things were dumped into flops, to avoid 
> the issue.

It also saves like half of the total area, it's not just an "issue", it
has advantages as well, it's a conscious design choice :-)  On CMOS this
area advantage is less pronounced.


Segher
Received on 2020-05-30 01:39:17

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