z80 computer with arduino coprocessor.

b/Hardware publicado por u/c4ooo December 22, 2017, 11:18:00 PM

z80 computer with arduino coprocessor.

I built a prototype for a z80 computer that uses an arduino for communication and bootstrapping. I can assemble a z80 source program with brass, and send it to the arduino with a small python program. The arduino is running a firmware program that waits for a program to be sent over serial, which it loads into the ram chip for the z80 to execute. The z80 communicates with the arduino via IO requests. The arduino<-->z80 API only contains 3 commands, but these can be used for the z80 to send messages to the PC via serial.

This is a small test program to send "test1" and "12345" to the PC via serial:

Code Select


#define output(x, y) ld a,y \ out (x),a
#define command(x) output(PORT_COMMAND, x)
 output(PORT_ADD_LOW, writeTo & FFh) 
 output(PORT_ADD_HIGH, writeTo >> 8) ;set data act-on address to writeTo
 ld hl,string1
 ld de,writeTo
 ld bc,6
 ldir ;copy string1 to writeTo
 command(COMMAND_WRITE_SERIEL) ;tell arduino to send data from act-on address to PC
 ;stuff
 ld hl,string2
 ld de,writeTo
 ld bc,6
 ldir ;copy string2 to writeTo
 command(COMMAND_WRITE_SERIEL) ;tell arduino to send data from act-on address to PC
 jr $ ;do nothing
string1:
 .db "test1",0
string2:
 .db "12345",0
writeTo:

Picture:

Todo:

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u/Yuki December 23, 2017, 12:53:20 AM

Ooooh, sounds fun. Any idea what you want to do with this?

u/c4ooo December 23, 2017, 02:20:09 AM

Quote from: Juju on December 23, 2017, 12:53:20 AM
Ooooh, sounds fun. Any idea what you want to do with this?

I dont know, i wanted to build something in the spirit of the Ninjabyte ZPX-128 ( https://codewalr.us/index.php?topic=1001.0 ) And had the part laying around. My main changes from the ninjabyte will be the use of an arduino 'stead of a Parallel Propeller (This can be an arduino mega shield), and the use of an LCD not VGA output.

u/DarkestEx April 10, 2020, 10:11:27 PM

What happened to your project? Did it go further?

u/c4ooo April 26, 2020, 06:47:46 AM

Quote from: DarkestEx on April 10, 2020, 10:11:27 PMWhat happened to your project? Did it go further?

Not really. At some point I made a VGA generator (which you saw). Later I bought a FPGA and did some VGA/CPU stuff on it. I'm mostly focused on school and software stuff at the moment. I find hardware stuff very daunting. @DarkestEx