Pioneer hardware with a (meanwhile) rare CPU: Cosmac Elf (1976) ... and his successors (derived from simplephpblog file blog\content\15\01\entry150104-220000.txt)

This is really cool:
The "ancient" CMOS CPU from RCA, the 1802, can be still found in SBC projects like the "1802 Cosmicos" and the "COSMAC Elf 2000" !

Why is a SBC so interesting with the RCA 1802 ?
Because the CPU is also used in many satellites and (former) rockets (it was also manufactured as a radiation resistant variation), and it was one of the first 8 Bit CPUs available, too.
Some of the first video consoles used the RCA 1802, too.
In 1976, it was the fastest (3.58Mhz) running CPU, unfortunately no bigger computer manufacturing company used it for their models.
The CPU was also used in a rare homecomputer named "COMX35", but that's the only one of his kind I know.
The first SBC, the Cosmac Elf, was published in August 1976 in "Popular Electronics".


You can take a look at the articles also >here< and >here<.
You should also visit http://www.cosmacelf.com/
NOW WHERE'S THE BEEF ?

Hans Otten has his own page about his 1802 Cosmicos SBC:
http://retro.hansotten.nl/index.php?page=1802-cosmicos Infos about the "COSMAC Elf 2000" can be found here:
http://www.sparetimegizmos.com/Hardware/Elf2K.htm
But you don't need real hardware to try to program a RCA 1802.
There is a really good emulator: http://www.elf-emulation.com/emulator.html Another emulator can be found here: http://www.emma02.hobby-site.com/index_download.html
Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RCA_1802 for a first impression about the CPU.
Then look at the instruction list at http://www.elf-emulation.com/1802.html
Picture was taken from wikipedia.

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