Post #20,458
12/6/01 8:44:54 AM
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Don't think so.
I'm pretty sure it was a Z10. Company name might have been Zilog? I think they make chips for embedded products now.
When I visit the aquarium, the same thought keeps running through my mind; Leemmmooonnn, Buuttteerrr, MMMmmmmmm good!
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Post #20,464
12/6/01 9:24:38 AM
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Z10? Not Z80?
Z80 were in CP/M machines.
A Google search for "zilog z80" returns 4,630 pages.
A Google search for "zilog z10" returns none.
Are you sure it was a PC compatible?
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Post #20,465
12/6/01 9:47:54 AM
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Am I sure?
Yeah, it was a PC clone. What I'm not sure of is the name of the chip and/or the company that made it. I am positive it was not a NEC chip though. The Z80 sounds vaguely familiar. I do remember that the chip was faster than a comparable Intel chip. 4.77 vs 8 MHz? 8 vs 10 MHz? You know your getting old when you can't remember what you once used for bragging rights.
When I visit the aquarium, the same thought keeps running through my mind; Leemmmooonnn, Buuttteerrr, MMMmmmmmm good!
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Post #20,481
12/6/01 12:03:22 PM
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Well, the V20 was compatible with Intel 8088 used by IBM...
i.e. pin compatible and machine instruction compatible as well. It is 16-bit processor with an 8-bit data bus. Functionally it is equivalent to he Intel 8086 which had a 16-bit data bus.
NEC V30 was pin compatible with Intel 8086.
The NEC chips had a better design for integer math operations (link says ~15%). My wife had an IBM PS/2 Model 25 whose 8086 I replaced with a V30. The improvement was not large, but noticeable.
[link|http://lowendpc.com/tech/8086.shtml|Link.]
The Zilog/Mostek Z-80, which I knew quite well, was compatible with the Intel 8080 but had many additional machine instructions. The 8080 and Z-80 chips were used on the S-100 Bus machines of the pre-PC period. I built one of these Z-80 machines almost from scratch. e.g. designed, laid out, and etched copper for the processor board, etc. Anyway, the 8-bit data of 8080/Z-80 vs. (internal) 16-bit data of 8088 (and 8086) difference are such you could not run DOS programs on it. In other words, the programming model of the CPUs are different.
[link|http://vmoc.museophile.com/cards/|Here's a list of other micros.] Pick one. But if you were PC compatible and not Intel, it was probably a NEC V20/V30.
Alex
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
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Post #20,482
12/6/01 12:19:48 PM
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Z80 - 8088
NEC also made a chip, I think it was called the N300 that executed Z80 instructions but was clock and buss compatible with the 8088. This allowed a machine to have both Z80 and 8088 compatible CPUs on the same board. My Octagon 8/16 S100 machine had this and could boot CP/M-80, CP/M-86 Concurrent CP/M-86 and MS-DOS.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #20,484
12/6/01 12:28:15 PM
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Damn. I used to have a memory that worked.
It was the NEC V20. I think. It also had the 10 Meg hard drive that failed all over the place. I splurged and got a 20 meg to replace it for (IIRC) ~$300. Things are coming back to me. I bought a fancy dancy CGA monitor with a hercules video card to go along with this technical marvel. I replaced and upgraded various parts of the system over the years until nothing of the original was left. I am still using its spiritual succesor.
When I visit the aquarium, the same thought keeps running through my mind; Leemmmooonnn, Buuttteerrr, MMMmmmmmm good!
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Post #20,488
12/6/01 1:03:32 PM
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Sigh...
The Zilog/Mostek Z-80, which I knew quite well, was compatible with the Intel 8080 but had many additional machine instructions. The 8080 and Z-80 chips were used on the S-100 Bus machines of the pre-PC period. I built one of these Z-80 machines almost from scratch. e.g. designed, laid out, and etched copper for the processor board, etc. It's stories like that which make me wish I had been born 10 years earlier. :(
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
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Post #20,500
12/6/01 2:24:39 PM
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Another machine from the earlier days...
In grad school in 1985 or so I got to play with an [link|http://www.coho.org/~pete/IPC/integral.html|HP Integral Personal Computer]. It was a "luggable" lunch-box-like portable computer. Moto 68000, 1 MB RAM (512 kB standard), built-in 9" yellow on black (or reverse) EL graphics display. Built-in inkjet printer. Had a new-fangled built-in 700 kB floppy drive (disks were $70 for a box of 10). Ran HP-UX 5 out of ROM. Had a built-in HP-IB interface for attaching to instrumentation, external hard drives, etc.
The school was evaluating them as required PCs for the program. The list price was something like $7500 and we were getting them for a little under $5000.
It was a nice machine, but too expensive for the students.
That's when companies weren't afraid to innovate. :-(
Cheers, Scott.
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