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Ninjabyte ZPX-128 (universal Z80 computer kit)

Started by DarkestEx, January 13, 2016, 12:49:19 AM

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Dream of Omnimaga

Personally, I'm mostly hoping that its programming language will be similar or identical to the TI-84 Plus CE language that Cumred was developing.
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

DarkestEx

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on March 09, 2016, 03:52:58 AM
Personally, I'm mostly hoping that its programming language will be similar or identical to the TI-84 Plus CE language that Cumred was developing.
Well there is no specific program language planned. Cumred once proposed that we could port Claw and his language to it, but that will only happen if he finds the time.
Of course there are the common programming languages that work on the Z80 such as assembler and C.
Given the SMC is more powerful than the actual z80 we can let it do a lot of little goodies such as some graphics commands. Games shouldn't be too bad though I initially wasn't going for games and still am not. Its a general purpose Z80 computer kit with a lot of features and gaming is just a thing you can do with it.
But again, I can't start prototyping yet as I again lack money and that probably means another pause. The CNC build ate basically everything I had left and saved so this is a problem. I need about 25€ to continue. While this doesn't seem like much, I just finished paying my debt.
  • Calculators owned: TI-84+, Casio 101-S, RPN-Calc, Hewlett-Packard 100LX, Hewlett-Packard 95LX
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Original Commodore 64C, C64 DTV, Nintendo GameBoy Color, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2

Dream of Omnimaga

That sucks. To be honest maybe you might be better off waiting until you have a job and are 18 before commercializing a computer, but it's still a fun project to do in your hobbies I think so it's sad no matter what if you cannot continue working on it when you want. :/
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

DarkestEx

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on March 09, 2016, 08:43:32 AM
That sucks. To be honest maybe you might be better off waiting until you have a job and are 18 before commercializing a computer, but it's still a fun project to do in your hobbies I think so it's sad no matter what if you cannot continue working on it when you want. :/
Actually I won't work at 18 as I will attend university. I also wasn't ever planning to do the ZPX-128 as a profit but a non-profit project where the income is just used to cover the expenses to develop it.
  • Calculators owned: TI-84+, Casio 101-S, RPN-Calc, Hewlett-Packard 100LX, Hewlett-Packard 95LX
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Original Commodore 64C, C64 DTV, Nintendo GameBoy Color, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2

Snektron

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on March 09, 2016, 03:52:58 AM
Personally, I'm mostly hoping that its programming language will be similar or identical to the TI-84 Plus CE language that Cumred was developing.
That will probably get weird due to it being relatively hard to type on a calculator, so i'll have to do something with the tokens or create a custom editor
  • Calculators owned: TI-84+
Legends say if you spam more than DJ Omnimaga, you will become a walrus...


Dream of Omnimaga

Nah, no on-calc support is fine for the color models, because the existing editor is slow and a lot of people use SC3 or Tokens. It wouldn't hurt to have a custom on-calc editor long term, though. :P
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

DarkestEx

So I have decided what I will do about the audio problem and let myself inspire from what ivoah said and we will make audio optional. For about 6-8€ extra you'll be able to add a Commodore 64 compatible SID audio synthesizer. It will be attached to the SMC/northbridge/coprocessor and can be controlled from the Z80 side.
  • Calculators owned: TI-84+, Casio 101-S, RPN-Calc, Hewlett-Packard 100LX, Hewlett-Packard 95LX
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Original Commodore 64C, C64 DTV, Nintendo GameBoy Color, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2

Dream of Omnimaga

Hm that might be interesting. I wonder if the hardware would be capable of generating sound as good as on the C64?
  • Calculators owned: TI-82 Advanced Edition Python TI-84+ TI-84+CSE TI-84+CE TI-84+CEP TI-86 TI-89T cfx-9940GT fx-7400G+ fx 1.0+ fx-9750G+ fx-9860G fx-CG10 HP 49g+ HP 39g+ HP 39gs (bricked) HP 39gII HP Prime G1 HP Prime G2 Sharp EL-9600C
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Huawei P30 Lite, Moto G 5G, Nintendo 64 (broken), Playstation, Wii U

DarkestEx

Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on March 11, 2016, 07:51:50 AM
Hm that might be interesting. I wonder if the hardware would be capable of generating sound as good as on the C64?
I doubt it will come too close. But it'll have most of the features though.
  • Calculators owned: TI-84+, Casio 101-S, RPN-Calc, Hewlett-Packard 100LX, Hewlett-Packard 95LX
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Original Commodore 64C, C64 DTV, Nintendo GameBoy Color, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2

c4ooo

#54
@DarkestEx so i was wondering what you were planning to use as a microcontroller ever since you dropped the parallax propeller. You mentioned the teensy 3.0 in IRC, but i was confused as that only has one core and i was pretty sure you needed multiple to generate VGA, sound, z80 clock signal and more at the same time. Just want some clarification :)

Edit: your website says it is the 32-bit ST Micro ARMv7ME, but that is still one core so my question remains :)

DarkestEx

Quote from: c4ooo on February 27, 2017, 01:05:51 AM
@DarkestEx so i was wondering what you were planning to use as a microcontroller ever since you dropped the parallax propeller. You mentioned the teensy 3.0 in IRC, but i was confused as that only has one core and i was pretty sure you needed multiple to generate VGA, sound, z80 clock signal and more at the same time. Just want some clarification :)

Edit: your website says it is the 32-bit ST Micro ARMv7ME, but that is still one core so my question remains :)
Hi c4ooo,
I think it could; however the Propeller was better suited.
  • Calculators owned: TI-84+, Casio 101-S, RPN-Calc, Hewlett-Packard 100LX, Hewlett-Packard 95LX
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Original Commodore 64C, C64 DTV, Nintendo GameBoy Color, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2

c4ooo

Quote from: DarkestEx on February 27, 2017, 01:53:47 PM
Quote from: c4ooo on February 27, 2017, 01:05:51 AM
@DarkestEx so i was wondering what you were planning to use as a microcontroller ever since you dropped the parallax propeller. You mentioned the teensy 3.0 in IRC, but i was confused as that only has one core and i was pretty sure you needed multiple to generate VGA, sound, z80 clock signal and more at the same time. Just want some clarification :)

Edit: your website says it is the 32-bit ST Micro ARMv7ME, but that is still one core so my question remains :)
Hi c4ooo,
I think it could; however the Propeller was better suited.
I cant find a whole lot of info on the 32-bit ST Micro ARMv7ME, nor where to buy it :(

DarkestEx

Quote from: c4ooo on February 28, 2017, 01:41:34 PM
Quote from: DarkestEx on February 27, 2017, 01:53:47 PM
Quote from: c4ooo on February 27, 2017, 01:05:51 AM
@DarkestEx so i was wondering what you were planning to use as a microcontroller ever since you dropped the parallax propeller. You mentioned the teensy 3.0 in IRC, but i was confused as that only has one core and i was pretty sure you needed multiple to generate VGA, sound, z80 clock signal and more at the same time. Just want some clarification :)

Edit: your website says it is the 32-bit ST Micro ARMv7ME, but that is still one core so my question remains :)
Hi c4ooo,
I think it could; however the Propeller was better suited.
I cant find a whole lot of info on the 32-bit ST Micro ARMv7ME, nor where to buy it :(
You buy it in the form of a dev kit. The Teensy 3.2/3.5/3.6
  • Calculators owned: TI-84+, Casio 101-S, RPN-Calc, Hewlett-Packard 100LX, Hewlett-Packard 95LX
  • Consoles, mobile devices and vintage computers owned: Original Commodore 64C, C64 DTV, Nintendo GameBoy Color, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2

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