December 31st, 2012 by Benj Edwards
“The first business computer system that will not instantly crush your secretary.”
Happy New Year from Vintage Computing and Gaming!
[ From BYTE, November 1979, p.21 ]
Discussion Topic of the Week: Quick! Name your favorite computer, calculator, or console with a Z80 CPU.
Tags: 1979, 8-inch floppies, ACS8000-6, advertisement, Altos Computer Systems, BYTE, Retro Scan, S-100, Sun-Series, woman, Z80
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“The first business computer system that will not instantly crush your secretary.”
December 31st, 2012 at 12:32 pm
C-128
December 31st, 2012 at 12:38 pm
While looking up Zilog’s main contribution to computing history, I found this ad on Wikipedia: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Zilog_Z-80_Microprocessor_ad_May_1976.jpg Clearly, someone wanted to write off their miniatures as a business expense.
December 31st, 2012 at 3:10 pm
Coleco Adam!
It’s a pretty goofy system, but I got a lot of mileage out of it thanks to its AppleSoft-compatible BASIC (except the screen was only 32 chars wide instead of 40) and a truly amazing version of Logo designed to take full advantage of the TMS9928a graphics chip. I had a lot of fun putting those 32 sprites through their paces, and the Logo language was surprisingly powerful. One of the bundled demos included a recursive routine for drawing fractles, of all things.
But that tape drive was absolute torture.
December 31st, 2012 at 8:17 pm
The Sega Master System. Pretty awesome console, and I’ve been enjoying getting back into its games this year.
December 31st, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Mmmm…. so many choices…
I’ll throw in the MSX2. Weird japanese computers make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.
January 1st, 2013 at 3:29 pm
It’s interesting how the ad on Wikipedia describes the clock speeds in terms of (I assume) the amount of time a single cycle takes instead of the now-standard reverse; 500 ns should be 2 MHz and 400 ns should be 2.5 MHz. Was this common practice in the ’70s, or specific to Zilog’s literature?
January 11th, 2013 at 5:58 pm
By far, the GameBoy would be my favorite (not quite) Z-80 based machine, followed by the TI-82 graphing calculator. I spent quite a bit of time with both of those devices in high school. I also had a TS 1000 at the time, but it never got anywhere near the attention as the other two.
January 20th, 2013 at 7:07 pm
The ZX-Spectrum, very popular in Brazil (my home country) in the 80’s. Actually, I had a Spectrum locally produced clone called TK-90x.
January 25th, 2013 at 4:01 pm
The Sinclar ZX-80. Tiny little thing with few chips beyond the Z80A. The design did ‘bend’ the rules a bit on how some of the components were used.
January 25th, 2013 at 4:20 pm
BTW – I have a Zilog Z80 Assembly Language Manual (white cover) and Zilog Z80 Databook (Hardware Manual, black cover) that I used extensively while working for TRIAD Systems (CA, USA) in the 80’s – 90’s, who used the Z80, Z80A, Z80B, Z80H, and Z280 extensively as main processors, communications boards, disk/tape controller boards, and many other intelligent peripherals.