26 Sep
2005
26 Sep
'05
3:33 p.m.
I've been trying to get hold of one of these and a
380z for ages, they
seem to be quite scarce now. Unless I'm looking in the wrong places.
I've never seen the floppy drive for the 480Z. From what I can tell, it
linked to one of the serial ports on the 480Z, and used a synchronous
protocol (both ends of the link were Z80-SIO chips). IIRC it's the same
PCB as was used for ther intellegent disk controller in the 380Z, which
contained a Z80, RAM, and the serial chip. I suspect the ROM was
different though.
480Z machines are hard to find now, although there' a plastic-cased one
on E-bay at the momnet, I think. The older metal-cased version (black
painted, like a 380Z keyboard) is, I am told. rarer.
-tony