Development

The preferred way to develop software for the 2650 microprocessor is to use the original tools, on the original hardware. This is not always possible, especially when the original media have been lost and the software has to be recreated. And sometimes a modern computer with modern editors and other tools is just more convenient.

One of the main tools is an assembler. I created asm2650 to offer the best features of available assemblers. For TWIN users the Signetics assemblers are of interest.

I also created several utilities, mostly scripts for MacOS but they should work with no or little modification on other Unix-like systems. And — who knows — perhaps on Windows as well.

While developing programs I encountered some common programming patterns. I collected them as 2650 assembler patterns.

I plan to write down my system for reverse-engineering binaries to fully documented sources. But that will have to wait.

Useful tools:

DASMx: an incredibly useful tool when reverse-engineering binary software for which sources are missing.

VACS: for those who use Windows this apprears to be their assembler of choice.

Also see the Hardware page for links to hardware emulators. These are useful when debugging software.