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Is anyone interested with the Z80?

COMPACT

The Z80 is still manufactured today and I was wondering whether there is any interest for a community or discussion group.

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  • Hi Monte.

     

    I used Z80's back in the 1980's and used to have a bunch of them around, but with all the other processors now available, they are not something I would try to use today.  Too many support chips needed.

     

    Given the Cypress PSOC, I would start there instead.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to DAB

    HI DAB

     

    As you know I've used both.

    The issue with using modern parts is that one needs a PC and also allows one to gloss over the fundamentals with everything provided on a platter.

     

    Building a Z80 system forces one to at least assemble some hardware, learn machine code if desired, have many more hazards to navigate and develop a full sense of what is going on.

     

    Here's a comparison of the different levels of programming learned.

     

    PSOC C

    main() {

         unsigned char a=0;

         for(;;) {

              write_LED(a);

              a = ~a;

         }

    }

     

    Z80 ASSEMBLY

    LED_PORT     EQU     %01

     

    START:

         XOR A

    $1:

         OUT     (LED_PORT), A

         CPL

         JR     $1

     

     

    Z80 HEX

    AF D3 01 2F 18 FB

     

    Have a great day!

  • in reply to COMPACT

    Ah but have you looked at the ARM assembly language under the PSOC?

     

    I suspect that it might be about as efficient as the  Z80 code, but significantly faster.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to clem57

    Milton Feng and Walid Hafez have an experimental BJT working at 605GHz. IBM and AMD claimed to have switching transistors as fast as 2.0-3.3TeraHertz.

    At that speed I wonder how they'll dissipate the heat and everything would have to be soo close together to work.

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