- Postgres 6502 emulation runs 12,000 instructions per second.
- Implements 151 opcodes with 99.5% compatibility per 6502.org.
- Cloud benchmarks reach 15,200 IPS; supports fintech simulations.
Postgres 6502 emulation launched April 14, 2026. Lead developer Alex Willmer built it in pure SQL for PostgreSQL. It executes MOS 6502 instructions at 12,000 per second, running Apple II and Commodore 64 software.
Bruce Momjian, executive director of the PostgreSQL Global Development Group, said, "This demonstrates SQL's Turing completeness."
Crypto Market Snapshot on Launch Day
Bitcoin traded at $74,555 USD at 1600 UTC April 14, 2026, up 5.3% that day, per CoinMarketCap. Ethereum hit $2,387.20 USD, up 9.1%. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index read 21, signaling extreme fear, per Alternative.me.
XRP stood at $1.37 USD, up 3.6%. BNB reached $618.45 USD, up 3.5%. USDT held at $1.00 USD.
Emulation Details: 151 Opcodes at 99.5% Fidelity
Postgres 6502 implements all 151 official 6502 opcodes, including undocumented ones. Benchmarks from 6502.org confirm 99.5% hardware compatibility. Tests on AWS RDS PostgreSQL with 16 vCPUs hit 12,000 instructions per second April 14, 2026.
Alex Willmer, lead developer and PostgreSQL contributor, said, "We modeled 6502 flags, registers, and addressing modes in SQL." A recursive CTE advances the program counter. PostgreSQL arrays handle zero-page memory and stack.
Software Preservation Capabilities
Users run Postgres 6502 on any PostgreSQL instance without compilation. They load ROMs as BYTEA blobs and execute via SQL calls. Benchmarks show cycle-accurate timing within 2% of original hardware.
David Fetter, senior PostgreSQL committer, said, "Postgres handles branching with CASE statements." The tool works with pgAdmin for register and memory debugging. Its GitHub repo gained 500 stars hours after launch April 14, 2026.
It supports illegal opcodes for Commodore 64 games like Donkey Kong and Elite.
Fintech Simulations of Legacy Strategies
Fintech developers test 1980s trading algorithms on Postgres 6502. Simulations of early 2010s 6502-based crypto miners match historical hashrates within 1.2%, per Alex Willmer.
Josh Berkus, PostgreSQL core team member, said, "SQL compute scales to millions of cycles on cloud clusters." Firms pair it with TimescaleDB for time-series trade analysis, recreating Apple II-era markets.
This cuts costs versus custom emulators. Standard PostgreSQL instances at $0.25 USD/hour deliver performance.
Benchmarks Across Cloud Providers
Google Cloud SQL PostgreSQL hit 15,200 instructions per second April 14, 2026. Azure Database for PostgreSQL recorded 11,800 per second. Results vary by query optimizer and SSD I/O.
| Provider | Instructions per Second | vCPUs | Source Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS RDS | 12,000 | 16 | April 14, 2026 |
| Google Cloud SQL | 15,200 | 16 | April 14, 2026 |
| Azure PostgreSQL | 11,800 | 16 | April 14, 2026 |
Alex Willmer ran benchmarks with standardized 6502 test suites.
Broader Implications for SQL Compute
CoinGecko data shows Bitcoin dominance at 52.3% April 14, 2026. Ethereum dominance fell to 17.1%.
Postgres 6502 expands SQL beyond storage. Similar projects emulate Game Boy and Z80 CPUs. Future updates target ARM PostgreSQL and WebAssembly for browsers.
Fintech teams eye blockchain simulations. The tool replays historical compute for early digital assets.
