This is page is about a dream that I’ve had for years, to build a fully functional z80 computer. I have programmed Ti graphing calculators on and off for a few years. Most Ti’s utilize a special version of the z80, but to the best of my knowledge it is completely compatible with the original ZiLOG z80. My dream sprung into life when I realized that I could actually build my own computer. I know this doesn’t sound very dramatic, but after I had done some research, it seemed within reach. It was a dream that I hadn’t contemplated until I thought it possible.
This project is far too hard for me to do in a single step; to make things easier, I’m splitting this project into many mini-projects that can be easily completed. This style of building makes it easy to work the bugs out of the system. If I just build it at once, it’s just about guaranteed not to work. It would also be much harder to know where the problem(s) are; but if modularized, it becomes much easier to identify the non-working parts.
The latter steps are dependent on how the initial steps turn out, this is why my plan is incomplete.
I plan to rewrite some parts later, I still don’t like how they sound.
Plan:
- Minimal z80 tester
- LCD tester
- Full z80 tester??
- Non-volatile RAM programmer??
- z80 interfaced with RAM and LCD??
- ??
