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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : 16z
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kiiid Guru  Joined: 11/05/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 671 |
Hello guys, Just wanted to share some information with everybody here. For the past about a month time I've been working on some project just for the fun of it. It is for a "contemporary retro" computer (is there such term at all?). It is not aiming to be the fastest, or the cheapest, or the most resourceful, or the smallest, or... you get the idea. It is just something around the Z16F core which I recently came across and instantly fall in love with. That is one of the very few remaining today processors, which actually does allow the whole software to be written from ground up and in assembler if that is needed. Generally I don't expect a lot of interest at all and I am doing it just to enjoy myself, but please I don't need to know how dumb I am, or useless the project is, or other things of the sort. Just wanted to share the project in case anyone else is interested or might find the information useful. It will be completely 100% open-source and soon I will define Altium templates for add-on boards as well (still haven't decided about their "standard" height). At the moment I just completed the whole hardware design and PCB and will be assembling some board to start writing the most routine hardware support functions for it. The project is hosted at GitHub Kon http://rittle.org -------------- |
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Geoffg Guru Joined: 06/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 3194 |
Zilog still rules!! or ZiLOG as they now call themselves. It was so long ago that I last worked with a Zilog chip (the Z80) but I can still remember the opcode for a jump (it is C3 hex). There are so many chips out there that it is hard to pick one to build a programming system around. Lots of luck with this project. Geoff Geoff Graham - http://geoffg.net |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3804 |
Have fun, but "one of the very few remaining today processors, which actually does allow the whole software to be written from ground up and in assembler if that is needed" isn't true at all. Any of the typical MCUs are the same in that sense, from PICs to ARM chips to - well, any of them. John |
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| MOBI Guru Joined: 02/12/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 819 |
That's right John. After all, an MCU is really only an MPU with all the usual peripherals on the same chip. All the peripherals and RAM/ROM etc are all memory mapped just as in a "standard" computer. Hi Geoff, yes, it is amazing how certain hex codes still stick in the memory after all these years. (I still preferred the 6502 but I did teach Z80 and associated peripherals at Darwin Institute of Technology (now Darwin UNI) in the 80's) - remember the Micro Professor?) David M. |
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MicroBlocks Guru Joined: 12/05/2012 Location: ThailandPosts: 2209 |
The Micro Professor is still sold. http://www.flite.co.uk/microprofessor-mpf-1b-z80-training-sy stem.htm I still have the original one from Nultitech which i bought after i got interested in machinecode on my TRS-80 model I!) Microblocks. Build with logic. |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 3804 |
Chips with legs you can easily stick a meter or 'scope on, and clock slow enough to see a trace. LOL John |
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