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Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #5845] Sat, 19 January 2019 18:48 Go to next message
agn453 is currently offline  agn453
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Location: Newcastle, NSW, Australia
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I've just got my hands on an eZ80 Acclaim! development kit (the EZ80F910200ZCO) and managed to get it working with a copy of the Zilog ZDS II 5.3.0 development tools running on Windows 7 under Oracle VirtualBox on my Mac mini.

Looking around the 'net I can find a few bits and pieces - including a version of CP/M 2.2 that uses the SPI interface to hookup an SD card as storage.

I also found references to Howard Harte's ez80sbc (which uses the eZ80F91 module plugged in to his own designed board). Is there anyone here with such a beast? The archive.org wayback machine has the now non-existent site www.ez80sbc.com with a download link to a ez80sbc_Setup.msi file that (of course) wasn't archived. This (presumably) has a CP/M plus implementation as a ZDS project that I'd like to have a look at.

Also, any other pointers to useful eZ80 stuff would be appreciated.

Thanks

Tony

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Tony Nicholson

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #5846 is a reply to message #5845] Sun, 20 January 2019 00:42 Go to previous messageGo to next message
just4fun is currently offline  just4fun
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Hi,
sometimes I'm tempted to use an eZ80 too... but for now I haven't done it because IMHO the chip is too much overpriced and not easy to find... I mean for the same price I can buy a Cyclone II FPGA that is a lot more fun to use and study... (I don't know if some eZ80 flavor is still in production...).

I've done in the past some research... give a look here if there is something interesting for you...

http://www.shaels.net/index.php/mic80/mic80-downloads/40-ori ginal-ez80-cpm22

http://noplabs.com/cpm50/cpm50.html

http://www.shaels.net/index.php/mic80/mic80-general/38-mico- overview

http://blog.retroleum.co.uk/20110530/ez80p/

BTW: this thread could be a place to share information about it... (never say never...).

Best regards.
J4F

[Updated on: Sun, 20 January 2019 00:44]

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #5849 is a reply to message #5846] Sun, 20 January 2019 06:28 Go to previous messageGo to next message
etchedpixels is currently offline  etchedpixels
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I looked a while back and found very little. There are a few but most of them if not all seem to die. When the CPU was interesting Zilog went to great trouble to shoot themselves in the feet. Want to use it, sure you'll need our compiler $$$, and development board $$$, and a connecting cable $$$ and only ours works. At that point I think most hobby and CP/M fans told them to see figure 1.

ez80sbc seems to have https://www.crowdsupply.com/cp-maker/makerlisp-machine as an upcoming project, but even the newer fun looking ones like Zikzak died.

For compilers you don't actually need a lot to use it in 8/16bit mode. 24bit mode is just... weird because nobody today does 24bit computing let alone 24 bits as 3 8 bit bytes. Philipp was talking about adding eZ80 16bit mode at least to SDCC and seems to think it wouldn't been too hard to generate good code and get a modern compiler supporting it. His ask at the time (and I think still pending) is that someone does the work to add it to the assembler and ideally the emulator (so it can run regression tests etc).

https://sourceforge.net/p/sdcc/mailman/message/36422314/

Similar problem with the rabbit CPU R2k/R3k/R3kA boards - although the rabbit libraries at least mostly got open sourced.

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #5851 is a reply to message #5849] Sun, 20 January 2019 07:56 Go to previous messageGo to next message
mikemac is currently offline  mikemac
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Are you guys talking about a different eZ80? Digikey has a couple thousand eZ80 Acclaim and eZ80 Acclaim Plus chips in stock starting at $6. They even have 31 of the EZ80F910200KITG for $104, supposedly including the compiler.


Mike

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #5855 is a reply to message #5851] Sun, 20 January 2019 15:45 Go to previous messageGo to next message
etchedpixels is currently offline  etchedpixels
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The original eZ80 is a kind of super Z80 general purpose microprocessor. Most of the new ones are IoT/embedded widgets with limited RAM and onboard ethernet and the like. They can apparently also be used with external RAM so maybe they are useful.

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #5858 is a reply to message #5851] Mon, 21 January 2019 03:35 Go to previous messageGo to next message
just4fun is currently offline  just4fun
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mikemac wrote on Sun, 20 January 2019 16:56
Are you guys talking about a different eZ80? Digikey has a couple thousand eZ80 Acclaim and eZ80 Acclaim Plus chips in stock starting at $6. They even have 31 of the EZ80F910200KITG for $104, supposedly including the compiler.


Right. But 6$ are for a lot of 1500. A single unit is about 9$ (plus shipment...). Too much... IMHO for a lot less I've a STM32F4 M4 Cortex MCU or a EP4CE6E22C8 FPGA... of course are different things but a lot more fun (and with more "power" to play with)... and both can "emulate" a Z80 with great (or superior) results...

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #5861 is a reply to message #5845] Tue, 22 January 2019 01:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
tor is currently offline  tor
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agn453 wrote on Sun, 20 January 2019 03:48
The archive.org wayback machine has the now non-existent site www.ez80sbc.com with a download link to a ez80sbc_Setup.msi file that (of course) wasn't archived.

I have a copy of that file if you need it. I managed to copy some parts of the site before it disappeared.

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #5862 is a reply to message #5861] Tue, 22 January 2019 13:29 Go to previous messageGo to next message
agn453 is currently offline  agn453
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tor wrote on Tue, 22 January 2019 20:38
agn453 wrote on Sun, 20 January 2019 03:48
The archive.org wayback machine has the now non-existent site www.ez80sbc.com with a download link to a ez80sbc_Setup.msi file that (of course) wasn't archived.

I have a copy of that file if you need it. I managed to copy some parts of the site before it disappeared.



I'd be grateful if you could send it to me (prefer dropbox or google drive). I'll send my e-mail address in a PM.

Tony

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #5863 is a reply to message #5862] Tue, 22 January 2019 13:40 Go to previous messageGo to next message
agn453 is currently offline  agn453
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Thanks for the responses.

While they're still online, I'll share a few links regarding the eZ80 that I've unearthed too -

Douglas Beattie Jr's (Forth, ZDS II) - http://www.hytherion.com/beattidp/

FreeRTOS (a real-time operating system) from Juergen Sievers - https://github.com/notwendig/FreeRTOS-eZ80F91

NuttX real-time operating system - https://nuttx.org/

Tony

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #5864 is a reply to message #5863] Tue, 22 January 2019 13:53 Go to previous messageGo to next message
agn453 is currently offline  agn453
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Another one i missed from my bookmarks -

An "Unofficial Zilog eZ80 Acclaim! HOWTO" - https://alum.wpi.edu/~tfraser/Software/Zilog/howto-mini.html

Tony

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #5872 is a reply to message #5862] Wed, 23 January 2019 14:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
agn453 is currently offline  agn453
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agn453 wrote on Sun, 20 January 2019 03:48
The archive.org wayback machine has the now non-existent site www.ez80sbc.com with a download link to a ez80sbc_Setup.msi file that (of course) wasn't archived.


Thanks Tor for providing me with a copy of this file.

In case anyone else follows me down this path - the ez80sbc_Setup.msi file contains only Intel HEX load format files for the eZ80sbc to run CP/M 3 and NO source-code.

The SIMH disk images included (these can be loaded from SD storage on the eZ80sbc) had no BIOS sources either. However the BIOS for SIMH AltairZ80 was modified to support the creation of disk images for writing to the eZ80's built-in flash.

Tony

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #6962 is a reply to message #5872] Wed, 29 January 2020 14:19 Go to previous messageGo to next message
lowen is currently offline  lowen
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Necroposting a bit... I just scored one of these on eBay for a good price; I've had some eZ80 modules for a while, but hadn't built a carrier board as yet; I've been thinking about an ECB carrier board with level shifters and an RS-232 interface on it for a couple of years, but other things had gotten in the way. Tony, did you ever get anything on the eZ80?

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #6963 is a reply to message #6962] Wed, 29 January 2020 16:06 Go to previous messageGo to next message
wsm is currently offline  wsm
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I've been toying around a bit with a new design for a small encased eZ80 system ~3"x1.6"x0.8" with up to 4MB SRAM, USB, SD card & Ethernet plus it's internal flash, clock etc. It appears that these may have started to become popular or Zilog is slow to produce them. The Acclaim Plus LQFP is backordered at Digi-Key and Mouser has it backordered till the end of June. Other major distributors I've checked are also either no stock or backordered.

I do have the eZ80F910200KITG with the Mini Module but haven't played around with it too much or for quite awhile.

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #6964 is a reply to message #6962] Wed, 29 January 2020 18:07 Go to previous messageGo to next message
agn453 is currently offline  agn453
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lowen wrote on Thu, 30 January 2020 09:19
Necroposting a bit... I just scored one of these on eBay for a good price; I've had some eZ80 modules for a while, but hadn't built a carrier board as yet; I've been thinking about an ECB carrier board with level shifters and an RS-232 interface on it for a couple of years, but other things had gotten in the way. Tony, did you ever get anything on the eZ80?
I haven't tinkered with the eZ80 for a while.

I did get the MIC80 CP/M 2.2 running on it and accessing remotely served disk volumes via the IP stack (served via UDP from a Windows Z80EMU program).

What I did strike were incompatibilities between different versions of the Zilog ZDS II eZ80Acclaim development environments.

When I got the development board it came with V4.6.0 on a CD-ROM, and I downloaded the latest from Zilog (V5.3.0).

The MIC80 CP/M sources had been developed using version V4.11.0

With V5.3.0 - trying to build from unmodified sources with jump optimisation enabled keeps throwing up a "No label found in span-dependant instruction" and the build fails. With jump optimisation disabled there are too many "Range errors" for me to want to change all the jump instructions to either short or long address format explicitly.

The older version V4.6.0 assembler does work. However there are other latent bugs (going by later version release notes) that I'm reluctant to persevere with.

That's when I put it aside.

I've had much more fun playing with the Z280 which in my opinion has a much better instruction set.

Tony

Edited: fixed typo and after verifying the ZDS II version that original MIC80 work was done on (V4.11.0)

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Tony Nicholson

[Updated on: Wed, 29 January 2020 19:33]

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #6965 is a reply to message #6964] Wed, 29 January 2020 18:48 Go to previous messageGo to next message
lowen is currently offline  lowen
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Agreed on the Z280. And I thank you for your English comment translation.....

I'm actually pursuing a bit of a dream to have one of every Z80 generation running. Got a Z80, a Z182 (P112), several Z280s, and want to get a Z380 and an eZ80 running. Got a couple of Z380 chips mounted on breakout boards, but haven't gone any farther than that. At least with the eZ80 I don't have to solder it in place.

Anyway, thanks for the ZDS info; did you ever figure out which version was used?

wsm, I have a small quantity of new eZ80F91 chips still in the dry packs if you need one or two.

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Re: Zilog eZ80 bits and pieces [message #6966 is a reply to message #6965] Wed, 29 January 2020 19:39 Go to previous message
agn453 is currently offline  agn453
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lowen wrote on Thu, 30 January 2020 13:48

Anyway, thanks for the ZDS info; did you ever figure out which version was used?
I looked at the original MIC80 zip file - from http:// www.shaels.net/index.php/mic80/mic80-general/38-mico-overvie w. The map file indicates -

/* Generated by: */
/*  ZDS II - eZ80Acclaim! 4.11.0 (Build 07071801) */
/*  IDE component: c:4.11:07071801 */

Maybe someone has this version in their software hoard.

Tony

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Tony Nicholson

[Updated on: Wed, 29 January 2020 19:40]

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