Clinker 6502

Introducing the Clinker 6502, a serial-terminal microcomputer. The predecessor to the Clinker 68000.

Primary Features

• MOS 6502 (NMOS), 2 MHz
• 64 KB RAM, 48 KB usable
• Serial console over RS-232 — bring your own VT100-class terminal; no keyboard or display hardware onboard
• 4× RS-232 serial ports, one MOS 6551 ACIA each, software-polled shared IRQ
• Serial RS-232 printer on one of those four ports (no dedicated printer port)
• Dual 5.25" floppy bay, WD1793-class controller, standard soft-sectored format
• MIDI output to an external synthesizer — one serial port plus an external 500 kHz ÷16 clock divider. No onboard synthesis.

Technical Specifications

See docs/CLINKER-6502-SPEC.md

Emulation

• Emulator core (Rust)
  • Note: in development — CPU skeleton only
• Supported Software
  • Clinker MIDI Catalog
    • Note: in development
    • Flat-file catalog — Name / Date / Kind / Size, sorted printout via the serial printer port
• Supported peripherals:
  • Any required for the Primary Features listed above
• Front-end for full-stack emulation experience: not yet implemented

License

Copyright 2026 D.B.

Licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or (at your option) any later version. See LICENSE for the full text.

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. It is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.