What is it?

This is a kit for a hobby computer based on the 65C02 processor.

The Planck hardware is organized around a motherboard that hosts the CPU and RAM, ROM and serial input / output as well clock generation, board connections, expansion slot activation and basic user IO.

You can use the computer from this kit standalone by connecting it to your computer with a USB to serial adapter, or you can add up to 6 extension boards to make it function as a standalone computer.

The main processor runs at 12 MHz, making it much faster than 6502 computers from the 70's and 80's

The default ROM provided with the "All chips" option contains TaliForth 2 which allows you to start using the computer straight away, but you can of course replace the code with anything you want: a simple monitor, a version of BASIC, etc...

What's in the box?

Included in the kit is the PCB (with two surface mount components already soldered on), capacitors, resistors, 3mm LEDs for power indicator and user controllable indicators, power switch, buttons for reset and NMI, mini USB power plug (soldered), all the sockets, the connnectors for the extension cards as well as all the chips (RAM, ROM, ACIA, CPU, address decoding, oscillators, power-on reset) if you choose the corresponding option.

Otherwise no chips are included: you will need one W65C02 CPU, one 28C256 ROM, one ATF22V10, one ATF16V8 and a programmer, one W65C51 ACIA, one 71256SA15TPG RAM chip (or equivalent fast narrow DIP SRAM), two DS1813 power-on reset chips in T092 package, one 74HC161 counter one 24MHz oscillator and one 1.8432MHz oscillator (both in DIP8 package).

Basicaly everything you need except:

• the serial to USB converter which you might already have or can be ordered cheaply at your favorite electronics retailer, or can be omitted if you plan to use the I/O board for a keyboard and the LCD board for output
• a USB power supply which you almost certainly already have, and can be omitted if you use a serial to USB adapter (the computer gets it's power from the adapter)

Expansion

You can add the I/O board to plug in a keyboard, the LCD board as an output display, and you have yourself a standalone 6502 Forth computer!

Maybe you can also try the OPL2 sound card to play some sick electronic tunes?

Or if you're more the maker type, then get the prototype board, and get building! (In that case, please share your creations with me, I'll put them up on the Planck computer website)