I see some z-80 cpu's resting comfortable in a black plastic box. What if you try with some other pair of lenses set in a frame, resting on the nose and ears, used to correct or assist defective eyesight or protect the eyes?
I once worked for a company that made there own Z80 based product. One day they were cleaning house and I got quite a few of those chips and now they are in my junk box collecting dust. I have thought from time to time to try to interface a Propeller to the Z80.
I have thought from time to time to try to interface a Propeller to the Z80.
an excellent idea!
Back in the day, before the Propeller came along, the equivalent of "F10" was to burn an eprom and stick it in a ZIF socket. Then burn another. Then have a group of 10 eproms that constantly cycled through the programmer then the UV eraser.
Nowadays, the Propeller could replace that eprom. You can think of a minimalist Z80 system, with just a Z80 and its ram chip and you can bootstrap a program into the ram, then set it going. The Propeller can become the disk drive (SD card) and the real world interface (serial ports, analog I/O, digital ports). And then it is onwards and upwards to a World Domination Moon Base.... *grin*
I have thought from time to time to try to interface a Propeller to the Z80.
an excellent idea!
Back in the day, before the Propeller came along, the equivalent of "F10" was to burn an eprom and stick it in a ZIF socket. Then burn another. Then have a group of 10 eproms that constantly cycled through the programmer then the UV eraser.
Nowadays, the Propeller could replace that eprom. You can think of a minimalist Z80 system, with just a Z80 and its ram chip and you can bootstrap a program into the ram, then set it going. The Propeller can become the disk drive (SD card) and the real world interface (serial ports, analog I/O, digital ports). And then it is onwards and upwards to a World Domination Moon Base.... *grin*
Wouldn't a propeller running zicog without a z80 save more space? ;D
Using the ZiCog or qz80 Z80 emulator on a Propeller will perhaps result in a smaller system. There are some caveats of course:
1) Performance. Whilst the original Intel 8080 emulator that became ZiCog was almost as fast as an original 8080 things slowed down a bit when the full Z80 instruction set was added. Plus a Z80 was a bit faster than an 8080.
2) Memory. When only using a Prop and it's HUB RAM the resulting Z80 system only has 16K or less RAM space. One can the add an external RAM. This has an effect on performance of course. And it is an extra component or more which might make you wish you had stayed with the original Z80 plus support chips.
All in all I have been waiting for a P2 to put ZiCog and a full up CP/M system including video into.
Using the ZiCog or qz80 Z80 emulator on a Propeller will perhaps result in a smaller system. There are some caveats of course:
1) Performance. Whilst the original Intel 8080 emulator that became ZiCog was almost as fast as an original 8080 things slowed down a bit when the full Z80 instruction set was added. Plus a Z80 was a bit faster than an 8080.
2) Memory. When only using a Prop and it's HUB RAM the resulting Z80 system only has 16K or less RAM space. One can the add an external RAM. This has an effect on performance of course. And it is an extra component or more which might make you wish you had stayed with the original Z80 plus support chips.
All in all I have been waiting for a P2 to put ZiCog and a full up CP/M system including video into.
Ahhh. Thank you. So it would be better to save your prop chip for other projects then (if you have the Z80 chip in hand).
What about this:
I have a few lying around. The documentation states that it is "code compatible with ZiLOG Z80 CPU."
After the Z80 life went into a blur. When I stopped to look we had 3GHz multi-core Intel boxes on our tables and all the world has a super computer in their pocket!
doggiedoc
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This is one of the eternal answers to, "What has 40 pins and makes people smile?"
Oh man, what a tease.
I once worked for a company that made there own Z80 based product. One day they were cleaning house and I got quite a few of those chips and now they are in my junk box collecting dust. I have thought from time to time to try to interface a Propeller to the Z80.
an excellent idea!
Back in the day, before the Propeller came along, the equivalent of "F10" was to burn an eprom and stick it in a ZIF socket. Then burn another. Then have a group of 10 eproms that constantly cycled through the programmer then the UV eraser.
Nowadays, the Propeller could replace that eprom. You can think of a minimalist Z80 system, with just a Z80 and its ram chip and you can bootstrap a program into the ram, then set it going. The Propeller can become the disk drive (SD card) and the real world interface (serial ports, analog I/O, digital ports). And then it is onwards and upwards to a World Domination Moon Base.... *grin*
Wouldn't a propeller running zicog without a z80 save more space? ;D
Brilliant. How about a zicog emulation running on the propeller and a real Z80 coprocessor.
1) Performance. Whilst the original Intel 8080 emulator that became ZiCog was almost as fast as an original 8080 things slowed down a bit when the full Z80 instruction set was added. Plus a Z80 was a bit faster than an 8080.
2) Memory. When only using a Prop and it's HUB RAM the resulting Z80 system only has 16K or less RAM space. One can the add an external RAM. This has an effect on performance of course. And it is an extra component or more which might make you wish you had stayed with the original Z80 plus support chips.
All in all I have been waiting for a P2 to put ZiCog and a full up CP/M system including video into.
Ahhh. Thank you. So it would be better to save your prop chip for other projects then (if you have the Z80 chip in hand).
What about this:
I have a few lying around. The documentation states that it is "code compatible with ZiLOG Z80 CPU."
After the Z80 life went into a blur. When I stopped to look we had 3GHz multi-core Intel boxes on our tables and all the world has a super computer in their pocket!
Is there any code for using a Prop to emulate a Z80?
check the search menu:
https://forums.parallax.com/search?Search=Z80
Or google:
Z80 Site:forums.parallax.com
See the links in my signature.
ZiCog, QZ80, RamBlade (ZiCog & CPM2.2 using SD as HDDs)
or on P2 see RetroBlade2 threads for links to CPM and Z80.
Hey, that first comment is not posted by me. Even though it looks like signed by me and using my cat, it's a real fake.
IIRC feeding a Z80 with boot code from a Prop was done there: http://shaels.net/index.php/mini80