Show HN: Discrete6502 – one thing led to another
The Discrete6502 project is a physical, transistor-level reconstruction of the iconic MOS 6502 microprocessor. By scaling the original silicon die layout to an A4-sized board using individual transistors, the creator has built a functional, non-simulated version of the chip that powered early home computers.
Why it matters
This project serves as a significant educational and engineering achievement, preserving the legacy of foundational computing hardware through tangible, visible logic.
A MOS 6502 CPU rebuilt from 4,051 individual transistors — no chips, no FPGA — laid out so the board reproduces the original silicon die, transistor for transistor.
The MOS 6502 powered the Apple II, the Commodore 64, the NES and the BBC Micro. Inside its package sit roughly 3,500 transistors on a fingernail of silicon. This project takes that exact circuit and rebuilds it from parts you can see: every transistor becomes a separate SOT-323 package soldered to a board the size of a sheet of A4 paper.
It is not a simulation and not an emulation. The logic is the real thing — the same dynamic NMOS circuit the original used, running the same instructions, just a few thousand times larger and a few hundred times slower.
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