6808

6808 refers to a microprocessor in Motorola’s 6800 family, introduced in the late 1970s as a cost-conscious variant of the M6800 line. It was designed for embedded applications where a reduced pin count and simpler clocking scheme were advantageous.

The 6808 is an 8-bit central processor with a 16-bit address space, sharing many architectural features with the 6800 family. It uses the same general registers and instruction set as other 6800-class CPUs, including accumulators A and B, the D register formed from A and B, an index register, a stack pointer, a program counter, and a condition code register. A key distinction of the 6808 is the inclusion of an on-chip clock generation capability, which allows the processor to operate from a single external clock input rather than requiring the dual-phase clock inputs used by the original 6800. This design choice enabled a reduced external circuitry footprint and lower overall system cost, making the 6808 attractive for certain embedded designs.

In terms of packaging, the 6808 was marketed in standard Motorola packages suitable for embedded boards, with a pin count structure that reflected its clock and I/O integration goals. It did not achieve the same broad adoption as some other 6800-family members and faced stiff competition from the more popular 6809 and later microprocessors and microcontrollers.

Today, the 6808 is regarded as a historical member of the 6800 family, notable for its clocking innovation and its role in the evolution of cost-effective 8-bit processors.