To explain why your original try wasn't working, consider the following:

split /(..)/,'00a0c801adc6';
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This returns an array that contains 12 elements, because the split function is, well, splitting the string, returning what the regex matches, along with what's in between the match (null characters).

Update: Whoops! Chipmunk was quicker on the draw.

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perl -e 's=$;$/=$\;W=i;$\=$/;s;;XYW\\U$"\;\);sig,$_^=$[x5,print;'
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