The Hitachi 6309 is even better.

But the problem with the 6809/6309 is that they max out at a clock rate of 3-4mhz and there's no new chips being made.

Whereas WDC & Zilog still manufacture brand new 6502 and Z80 chips, and they clock way higher. A brand new 6502 can do 20mhz.

So probably for retro projects that want a little more oomph, you're better off picking a 65816 clocked at 15mhz or so, than a 6809 at 4mhz. The 816 has relocatable direct page and stack like the 6809, too.

I've never seen one in person, but from the specs, the Fujitsu 8 bit micros were the best and they used the 6809.

My beloved beeb could only really compete in expandability.

Strongly seconded, along with the Hitachi 6309. But the latter is hard to source.

6809 would be just fine.

I keep a Color Computer 3, which has the 6809 stock, just because it's so much fun to program. Best of the 8 bit chips, if you ask me.

You know, when David gets done with this system, it's not a big stretch to make one with a 6809. Maybe someone will.

The 6502 was used because the Commodore kernel can be reused, or something like it can. It's not a total rewrite and that gets the project somewhere useful and familiar quickly. I don't blame 'em, and the 6502 is fun too.

I also suspect a rewrite of those components, BASIC, etc... in 6809 would end up smaller, faster and more feature rich too. Big project though.