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+# perfect6502
+
+*perfect6502* is a MOS 6502 CPU emulator that performs a simulation of the original NMOS 6502 netlist that was extracted by the [visual6502.org](http://www.visual6502.org/) project.
+
+Consequently, *perfect6502* is
+* *perfect*: It is not a reimplementation of the 6502, but a simulation of the original transistors. Its complete behavior, its internal state and its outputs are half-cycle exact.
+* *slow*: Even though *perfect6502* is highly optimized C code, achieves only 1/150 of the speed of a 1 MHz 6502 on a high-end CPU of 2014.
+
+*perfect6502* is useful for
+* understanding and reverse engineering the 6502
+* debugging 6502 emulators by running them side by side with *perfect6502*
+
+## Usage
+
+As a demonstration and as a performance/regression test, *perfect6502* is hooked up to [Commodore BASIC](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_BASIC) (cbmbasic).
+
+You can compile the project with
+
+	$ make
+
+and run it with
+
+	$ ./cbmbasic
+
+You should get the following output:
+
+		**** COMMODORE 64 BASIC V2 ****
+	
+	 64K RAM SYSTEM  38911 BASIC BYTES FREE
+	
+	READY.
+
+# Credits
+
+*perfect6502* is is written by [Michael Steil](http://www.pagetable.com/) and derived from the JavaScript [visual6502](https://github.com/trebonian/visual6502) implementation by Greg James, Brian Silverman and Barry Silverman.
+
+# Contributing
+
+Further performance optimizations are gladly accepted.
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