Hi guys,

Now that my 4 bit computer designs are finished (and have to wait for my etchant and stuff to come through) I was thinking about going 8 bit. Are there any good tutorials or....just anything for the Z80. I have a good understanding how computers function, i mean duh, i built one XD

So, any help and advice would be great
Thanks!

 

Hello,

Perhaps this helps a bit:
ftp://ftp.comlab.ox.ac.uk/pub/Cards/txt/Z80.txt

Greetings,
Bertus

 

that is very helpful (so helpful im currently printing it )
But are there any tutorials like how to send an add function and stuff because if i could do that i would be ontop of the world.

You CANT BELIEVE HOW EXCITED I AM about going to use this. The things it can let me do....errrrr im gonna collapse.....

Thanks!

 

The TRS80 was a popular computer that used the Z80. So did the Timex Sinclair. If you can find any old books they will be loaded with practical information

The Z80 isn't very logically arranged though, there are a lot of other 8 bit chips that are much easier to learn, such as the 6502 or 6800. I learned Z80 Assy first, and hated it. When I started on the C64 6510 (basically a 6502) it was a joy, and made a heck of a lot more sense.

Part of the problem with Z80's is they evolved.

In the beginning, there was the 4004, and it calculated.
The 4004 begat the 8008, and it crunched.
The 8008 begat the 8080, and it XTed.
And the 8080 was prolific, and spun off the Z80, 8086, and 8088, and it DOSed.
And the 8088 begat the 80286, and it grew square holes called Windows...

I might be wrong about this, but every 4000/8000 series chip has the entire op code set of the chip ahead of it, and then added some. This means some of the code is just scattered helter scelter, as the mood took the chip designers.

The 6502 was first generation of its kind, so was a lot more logically laid out. So was the 6800, which has proliferated much like the 4004.

 

I remember that I like the Z80 very much. I did my last Z80 project for about 10 years ago.I also hate the 8086/8088 assembler. The segmented addressing was a pain. Finding z80 stuff on the internet is not hard. Just use Google

 

This might be a good resource to bookmark - http://www.z80.info/z80sdt.htm

From much experience, the 6502 is less mind-bending to learn. Very few instructions leave you wondering about why one might use them, let alone why someone dreamed them up.

On the other hand, the 6502 is a loser, as nearly all modern processors and microcontrollers resemble the Z80. Even Apple dropped the 68xxx processors (related to the 6502 much more than Z80's - memory oriented rather than register oriented) in favor of Intel.

As above, Z80, 8051, 6502 and 6800 stuff is available on the web. Look at a few instruction sets to see differences.