Popular video game consoles and computers, such as the Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit family, Apple II, Nintendo Entertainment System, Commodore 64, Atari Lynx, BBC Micro and others, use the 6502 or variations of the basic design.
Along with the Zilog Z80, it sparked a series of projects that resulted in the home computer revolution of the early 1980s. Its introduction caused rapid decreases in pricing across the entire processor market. It initially sold for less than one-sixth the cost of competing designs from larger companies, such as the 6800 or Intel 8080. When it was introduced in 1975, the 6502 was the least expensive microprocessor on the market by a considerable margin. The design team had formerly worked at Motorola on the Motorola 6800 project the 6502 is essentially a simplified, less expensive and faster version of that design. The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced 'sixty-five-oh-two' or 'six-five-oh-two') is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small team led by Chuck Peddle for MOS Technology.
