Z8000
I'll have to get my homebrew Z8001 computer up and running again 1 day. I used to have a system where my Z8001 connected to my ZX Spectrum via a parallel port I'd added to the latter, then the Spectrum communicated (via Interface 1) to my Amstrad PCW, to which I'd ported my Z8001 segmented mode assembler from Spectrum Basic to Turbo C.
Unfortunately, neither the keyboard nor the Interface 1 of my Spectrum currently work and I'd be surprised if the rubber bands(!) in the PCW haven't perished.
I've got a Z80 PIO waiting for me to do another Z280 board, then I could use that to interface to my Z8001.
I'd buy a Z320 (or Z80,000) if I saw 1 for a reasonable price. That's the 32-bit version of the Z8000.
The article starts off rather misleadingly, since the Z8000s don't bear much resemblance with the Z80, except for a confusing similarity of the assembly languages. I was always writing "DJNZ label" on the Z8001, forgetting that I had to specify a register (unlike on the Z80 when DJNZ always used B)... and DJNZ used a 16-bit register on the Z8000. There was also a DJNZB 8-bit version.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
