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P2 Z8 emulator — Parallax Forums

P2 Z8 emulator

pic18f2550pic18f2550 Posts: 400
in Propeller 2

Hello,
is there a Z8 emulator for the P2?

Comments

  • msrobotsmsrobots Posts: 3,709

    I just know of a Z80 by @Cluso99

    Mike

  • pic18f2550pic18f2550 Posts: 400

    Z8 is not Z80.

  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069

    I used many hundreds of thousands of Z8 (Z8681 Romless) in my modem designs etc back in the late 80's. Very nice chip!
    But I haven't seen an emulation of the Z8.

  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514

    I used the Z8 extensively in the '80s for fruit sizing and sorting. One installation had eight Z8-controlled linescan cameras connected to eight Z8-controlled conveyor solenoids (via Opto-22 drivers). These were all networked together via RS422 to a central Z8 master controller operating a Tektronix touchscreen terminal.

    I loved the Z8's register-to-register architecture, with multiple addressing modes. But I loved even more its successor, the Super 8 (S8). It had pretty much the same architecture as the Z8, but with additional instructions optimized for Forth. It was only available in NMOS and ran HOT! Unfortunately Zilog dropped the S8 before it had a chance to find its niche in the marketplace. I incorporated the one S8 chip that I had into a stepper controller for a small 3-axis mill that I used at the time for making molds for fishing jigs (Point Wilson DART). The interface software was written in Forth.

    -Phil

  • VonSzarvasVonSzarvas Posts: 3,450

    Z8 thread discovered in the wilderness and cajoled back into action!

  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069

    @VonSzarvas said:
    Z8 thread discovered in the wilderness and cajoled back into action!

    Thanks :)

  • pic18f2550pic18f2550 Posts: 400

    Here is a link to the emulator of U. Nickel, and some amateur replicas.
    https://hc-ddr.hucki.net/wiki/doku.php/tiny/propeller_tiny

  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,173

    @"Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)" said:

    I loved the Z8's register-to-register architecture, with multiple addressing modes. But I loved even more its successor, the Super 8 (S8). It had pretty much the same architecture as the Z8, but with additional instructions optimized for Forth. It was only available in NMOS and ran HOT! Unfortunately Zilog dropped the S8 before it had a chance to find its niche in the marketplace.

    Zilog bought the S3 family from Samsung, which was a Z8 variant, and still supply that series,
    That mentions SAM86 and SAM88 cores, not sure where they sit on the Z8 ~ Super8 spectrum ?

    Zilog also rebadged a few ABOV 8051 parts as Z51F, but never seemed to quite know what to do with that.

  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069

    I used a Z8 and a Z8530 SCC on a Communications Card we built for Apple to connect Apple //e and Apple /// micros to IBM Mainframes. The Apple emulated a 3270/3274 IBM screen to the mainframes.

    Also designed boards plugging into an ICL Minicomputer motherboard with a pair of Z8s, one with 8 x Z8530 SCCs connected to 16 serial ports. One of my customers had 128 remote PCs around Australia connected by 9600 baud leased lines to their ICL mini using my boards.

  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2021-11-20 20:11

    Z8 thread discovered in the wilderness and cajoled back into action!

    Thank you! It even resurrected the post that the forum software said I couldn't post! How does that work?

    -Phil

  • Cluso99Cluso99 Posts: 18,069
    edited 2021-11-21 02:20

    Here are some of the products I designed using the Z8681 Romless micro. Probably close to 500,00 Z8's used.
    Oh for the P2 back then :(




  • KubaSOKubaSO Posts: 2

    @VonSzarvas said:
    Z8 thread discovered in the wilderness and cajoled back into action!

    I have had an eZ8-based deeply embedded ("invisible" to users) product out there for two decades now. Still supported, I've been doing some feature additions in the last couple of weeks. Harvard architecture - up to 4kB of RAM, up to 64kB of code space (normally FLASH). Their process is FLASH-limited, so it's possible to run the core as fast as the opcodes can be fed to it. They spec at 20MHz, I've been running it at 24MHz all these years. Some of their chips have internal program RAM in part of the code space. They are overclocking queens in that mode :)

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