current Z80-class activities

Most recent revision dated July 17 2015. This is a list of current Z80 system projects which provide new kits and boards. It's taken from a list formerly on my Web page of S-100 and CP/M Web pointers. - Herb Johnson

A number of individuals have produced Z80-type systems as small projects. Some have groups of people associated in various ways. They produce small runs of boards, some provide parts or assemblies. A Google search or ebay search may find them - often as announcements in blogs or email discussion groups or YouTube videos, etc.. The common theme among these projects is to offer "the kit building experience". But I think for some projects, that's a way of avoiding the kinds of support effort as provided in the past by "commercial" kit producers. Also, there are old blank (unbuilt) PC boards, or old unbuilt kits available from individuals from time to time. Some S-100 manufacturers often offered "unkits" of blank boards and manuals only.

Meanwhile, there are groups and individuals who support repair and use of ORIGINAL Z80 based systems. I have a Web page of Who has S-100 systems? for individual owners. The Web sites of modern Z80 projects are listed below.

- Herb Johnson

Z80 cards in Altoid tin (1802 also)

Lee Hart, a digital designer since the 1970's, is producing a Z80 kit as of mid-2015 called the Z80 Membership Card. It's a set of cards that are small enough to fit inside an Altoid mint tin can. The CPU includes ROM and RAM, and there's a hex front panel and keypad board with serial I/O (bit banged from the Z80). The ROM monitor supports the serial, front panel, and the Z80 monitor and debug commands. Most of the commands are available from the keypad. Lee has a whimiscal way to present the kit, as a throwback 1980's product.

Lee Hart has also produced the 1802 Membership Card, a COSMAC RCA 1802 processor board set also Altoids-sized, with a binary front panel board like the original "COSMAC ELF" of 1976. I have supported his 1802 product from the beginning. - Herb Johnson

P112 Z180 single-board

The P112 is a Z180 single-board computer originally designed and produced by David Brooks in the 1990's. In 2004 and forwards it was independently produced (in multiple runs) by David Griffith. It includes a daughterboard for GIDE, an IDE hard drive interface.

In summer 2010, Griffith offered to make another run of P112 boards if there were sufficient preorders. By Oct 2010 he decided there were NOT sufficient preorders, and cancelled the proposed run.

but.... sometime in 2015, he decided to offer P112 kits, through eBay and supported on his Web site for his P112 project. Look there for details. For purchase, apparently you can search for P112 on eBay as of July 2015.

Web links:
an email list on the P112.
Dave Griffith's P112 Web as of June 2007.
A SourceForge site for the P112, an independent effort not by Griffith.
Hal Bower's GIDE drivers for Uz180 and P112.

N8VEM projects

In mid-2008, Andrew Lynch announced in comp.os.cpm a N8VEM Z80 EuroCard Bus (ECB) computer project. He's offered these as open designs and as at-cost circuit boards without parts. There's also a N8VEM Google discussion group for the projects. A number of people since that time have contributed other designs to the board set. Boards are produced as announced.

In comp.os.cpm in early May 2009, Andrew Lynch announced a proposed "new" S-100 six-slot motherboard, with termination very very similar to the Compupro design; and his own prototype boards. Other S-100 cards have been discussed and produced, some in conjunction with John Monahan. Check the links above for details.

s100computers.com projects

In the summer of 2009, John Monahan wrote to me and said: "I am now in the process of putting together an S100 Web site. I have started off with hardware & software discussions about the board(s)." John had worked with S-100 companies as a programmer and designer. In the last few years he's provided SD Systems software to me. His site has photos and brief histories about S-100 cards and companies, a fourm, and related archives. After starting the site, John began to design a number of S-100 cards, in discussion with others on his site, and has offered them as blank boards "with no hand holding". Check his site for details; his past contributions to me are noted in older Web links below and on my SD Systems Web page.

SEBHC

In the summer of 2009, Les Bird of the Society of Eight-Bit Heathkit Computerists (SEBHC) archive site alerted me to this organization and this Web archive. There is also a SEBHC Google group. He said: "You mentioned that if someone had an H-8 computer and a website that you may consider adding a link. I have several H8 computers and H89 computers and a website that is, for now, the home of the SEBHC archive. In addition to many disk images and ROM dumps available on my website I also have several newly designed PCBs for the H8 computer that I offer to those who are interested." The boards are priced near cost plus shipping. The Google group dates from late 2007 and (for a old computer discussion group) is modestly active. SEBHC, I'm told was founded by Jack Rubin sometime in the early 2000s.

GIDE: IDE drive for Z80

The GIDE was an IDE interface consisting of PALs and a few other IC's, which plugged into a Z80 socket. Designed in 1995 by Tilmann Reh as published in "The Computer Journal", variations of this design have shown up in Z80-based systems to the present day (2010). I was first to distribute the GIDE in the USA. Information about GIDE is on this linked Web page.

microSD card product supportable in CP/M

In Feb 2011, Roger Hascom of speakeasy.org described his Adventures with 4d Systems' uDrive, at comp.os.cpm. That's µDRIVE-uSD by 4D Systems which combines a micro-SD card socket with a tiny tiny microcontoller on a board for $30 US. You can connect to it with a serial interface. Roger's page provides some Z80 code to read and write FAT16 files from a microSD card. The device does not support the more recent "HD" format (FAT32 and higher capacity) microSD cards. Discussion in comp.os.cpm raged over most everything EXCEPT the value of a $30 and relatively simple solution to modern mass storage for legacy CP/M systems.

Peter Dassow initiated the comp.os.cpm discussion. . He also has a Web page about the 4D product but comments to me "this page is still unfinished">. He otherwise posted "If you're really interested to a more modern solution, you have to look for Saelig's "uALFAT-SD" for example. Or just a device which can handle USB sticks like the Saelig "uALFAT USB Board" ." He described I am really happy that these "high level interface" devices are existing so forget difficult interface programming from now :-)

Look at Usenet newsgroup archives of comp.os.cpm, for the Feb 2011 discussion "uDrive CP/M source code may be available".

Other Z80 S-100 CP/M projects

In 2010 James Moxham AKA "Dr_Acula" of Australia is working on MP/M and networking, using a Z80 emulation called "ZiCog" or "Zog" on a Microchip "Propeller" mulit-processor. He's also used N8VEM Z80 cards, and may use S-100 systems also. He's discussed these in various email "forums", and on other Web sites including his own as linked above. I have a few references in my "links" list below. A Web search using keywords may find more of his work. (Links to blogs and discussions and email forums simply fail when those sites re-organize, as they often do.)

Editorial

Keep in mind that you can build or rebuild old, original Z80, S-100, and other "classic" systems and get similar benefits to building "new" kits. And, you get the experience of decades of design - or the headaches from working on older designs and chip sets. But if "old" is bad, why use CP/M or Z80's at all? ;) - Herb Johnson


Contact information:

Herb Johnson
New Jersey, USA
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