I initially confused the 8501 with the 8051 which is a totally different architecture. However, a quick Wikipedia trip taught me that the 8501 is a later variant of the 6510 so they're pretty much compatible. Still very impressive of course, especiall the part of re-writing the kernel to fit the different pin-out.
Now, that's interesting. Haven't looked at the article yet, but would like to note the C-128 actually used an 8502 processor, which I'd bet was a sibling/successor to the 8501. I never realized the +4/16 processor was a different one, too. I would have expected it to be just the same as the 6510 the C-64 used. Very interesting!
finally!! Some love for the ole Plus/4! No one knows about that machine, but it's the one that got me started with programming so many years ago. Mostly because there was nothing out there for it and user groups had very little for them.
This CPU project is cool, but no SID or VIC means you still can't game on them...sigh...
There are games for the plus/4 and 16. Check out http://www.commodore16.com which has a game database as well as a forum of Commodore TED machine enthusiasts.
The biggest difficulty I've found with gaming on these machines is the difficulty in finding joysticks that work with them, since Commodore decided to give them mini-DIN game ports instead of the DB9 ports used by virtually all other Commodore machines (including the Amigas). It is possible to make an adapter, however.
