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The Z80 Mem­ber­ship Card (2015)

sunrise-ev.com

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Re: The Z80 Mem­ber­ship Card (2015)

#11

Post by alnwlsn »

I grew up in a world where the Arduino already existed, but it was not until I tried building homebrew Z80 computers like this that I really felt I understood how computers/processors work at the low level.

Consider this a warning though: this hobby has caused me to involuntarily collect every model of Z80 powered TRS-80 computer.

If you wish to become hooked anyway, this project might be another good place to start: https://hackaday.io/project/159973-z80-mbc2-a-4-ics-homebrew...

Re: The Z80 Mem­ber­ship Card (2015)

#12

Post by wkjagt »

alnwlsn wrote: post #11

I grew up in a world where the Arduino already existed, but it was not until I tried building homebrew Z80 computers like this that I really felt I understood how computers/processors work at the low level. Consider this a warning though: this hobby has caused me to involuntarily collect every model of Z80 powered TRS-80 computer. If you wish to become hooked anyway, this project might be another good place to start:…

I went through the exact same process, but with the 6502 (Ben Eater's videos, and then another SBC of my own design after). It's helped me become a better programmer too. Example: pointers in C now feel very natural instead of some abstract idea of "memory addresses, whatever those are".

And yep, I now also own many 6502 based computers :-)

Re: The Z80 Mem­ber­ship Card (2015)

#14

Post by JKCalhoun »

osullivj wrote: post #13

Love the Freak Brothers references; two US counter cultures that do cross pollinate. Z80MC RAM & ROM seem v generous compared to the ZX81 I used to cut my asm teeth, wobbly RAM pack and all...

Looks like the caption to the image references a "Creative Computing" cover from 1979—so an indirect FFFBrothers reference.

Re: The Z80 Mem­ber­ship Card (2015)

#15

Post by JKCalhoun »

There's also an 1802 Membership Card—which I knew as the COSMAC Elf Membership Card [1][2]. Switches and LEDs. I built one of these kits a decade ago but mine didn't work. (I still need to pull it out and try to debug it. For all I know I did assemble it correctly and there is just a RUN switch or something I did not know to flip.)

[1] http://www.sunrise-ev.com/1802.htm

[2] http://www.cosmacelf.com/gallery/membership-cards/

Re: The Z80 Mem­ber­ship Card (2015)

#16

Post by olivia-banks »

b800h wrote: post #2

It's a shame Zilog stopped making Z80s. Presumably this means you can't make one of these from new components any more. Perhaps someone could create a new iteration of the same idea.

The Z80 is still used in consumer products. TI-80/TI-83 calculators are a well known example.

Re: The Z80 Mem­ber­ship Card (2015)

#19

Post by alnwlsn »

olivia-banks wrote: post #16
b800h wrote: post #2

It's a shame Zilog stopped making Z80s. Presumably this means you can't make one of these from new components any more. Perhaps someone could create a new iteration of the same idea.

The Z80 is still used in consumer products. TI-80/TI-83 calculators are a well known example.

For the aspiring hacker, we've also got:

The 80's/90's VeriFone Tranz 330 credit card terminal, which has a complete Z80 computer inside with DART, CTC and PIO chips, 32K RAM, and a socketed EPROM.

The Cidco Mailstation, which has a Z80, sizable monochrome LCD, and full-ish size keyboard, perfect to hack into a TRS-80 Model 100 style laptop.

You can pick up either on Ebay right now for ~$25

Re: The Z80 Mem­ber­ship Card (2015)

#20

Post by citizenfishy »

alnwlsn wrote: post #11

I grew up in a world where the Arduino already existed, but it was not until I tried building homebrew Z80 computers like this that I really felt I understood how computers/processors work at the low level. Consider this a warning though: this hobby has caused me to involuntarily collect every model of Z80 powered TRS-80 computer. If you wish to become hooked anyway, this project might be another good place to start:…

I have very sadly done the same with ZX Spectrums but the quest is never ending due to all of the baltic clones
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