The MOS Technology 6502 8-bit microprocessor, introduced in 1975. A workhorse of 1980s home computing, it and its variants powered the Apple I, Apple II, Apple II+, Apple IIe, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, Atari 800, Atari Lynx hand-held, BBC Micro and Master, Commodore PET, Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Famicom, Nintendo Entertainment System, and TurboGrafx-16, among others. Initially clocking in at 1.023 Mhz, some variants could reach up to 4 Mhz.
The 65xx series lives on through variants of the improved low-power WDC 65C02 CMOS version, first released in 1983. Hundreds of millions of units are still being produced annually; in particular, the W65C02Sā14 variant can exceed a blistering 14 MHz, and continues to see use in a wide variety of embedded devices ranging from automotive and industrial applications to medical implants.













