Awesome work. Parabens
Show HN: A retro video game console I've been working on in my free time
211–214 of 214 posts
Re: Show HN: A retro video game console I've been working on in my free time
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
You can hand clock a Z80. There is a certain magic to that.
I'm sorry, but what does "hand clocking" a Z80 mean?
As the Z80 doesn't use dynamic registers (I think basically the only "modern" CPU to make this decision) it doesn't need a minimum clock signal speed to refresh the registers as every other CPU does.
This means you can rig up a push button switch and manually advanced the clock one button press at a time.
To me that's super cool. It also makes them really easy to debug.
Re: Show HN: A retro video game console I've been working on in my free time
#213This is incredibly cool... I've thought about playing with some of the software emulators, but wouldn't have even thought to tinker with replicating or creating with real hardware.
Re: Show HN: A retro video game console I've been working on in my free time
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love that there is a group of people who still love the Z80! Such a beautifully designed chip.
I was doing a little bit of Z80 work a while back, but I didn't particularly seem to appreciate its design (compared to say MIPS). Why do you think it's beautifully designed?
Admittedly, I do not have a lot of experience in other CPUs, but to me its just the way its designed. A simple syntax for assembly and the way it maps to byte values is clever. It doesn't require a lot of work to make things happen, ie "hacks" for interacting with IO. I also like how there is a separate IO bus from the data bus, which means IO doesn't take up memory. The register naming convention is simple, and having "alternate" registers is cool.
Just seems simple and cool to me.