Conservative. Idaho. Software engineer. Historian. Trying to prevent Idiocracy from becoming a documentary.
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"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." -- Rom. 8:28
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Monday, January 20, 2020
More Antiques From my Closet
Zilog Z80-CPU ZZ80A-CPU Technical Reference. You never know when you might build a product around the Z80.
And, I found a subtle bug in the processor the day before a very important demo. The return from interrupt instruction (RTI) did something wrong with the interrupt status (don't remember what). Zilog had no interest in my bug report.
Fortunately, I was able to adjust for it and the demo went well, leading to us building and selling millions of bucks worth of those Z-80 based computers.
BTW, I wrote all but a tiny bit of the code in FORTH.
Ah those heady days when it seemed like the Z80 was the obvious choice in the contest with Intel's 8080. Somewhere in my garage I have a poster that hung in my office at the USDA depicting the epic struggle. I haven't thought of that in ages; I may have to dig it out this weekend.
Been there, done that.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I found a subtle bug in the processor the day before a very important demo. The return from interrupt instruction (RTI) did something wrong with the interrupt status (don't remember what). Zilog had no interest in my bug report.
Fortunately, I was able to adjust for it and the demo went well, leading to us building and selling millions of bucks worth of those Z-80 based computers.
BTW, I wrote all but a tiny bit of the code in FORTH.
I still have one on my bookshelf.
ReplyDeleteHasn't been cracked in like 30 years.
Ah those heady days when it seemed like the Z80 was the obvious choice in the contest with Intel's 8080. Somewhere in my garage I have a poster that hung in my office at the USDA depicting the epic struggle. I haven't thought of that in ages; I may have to dig it out this weekend.
ReplyDelete