25 Dec
2010
25 Dec
'10
12:10 p.m.
On 25 Dec 2010 at 14:30, allison wrote:
You could if the EZ80 was compatible, in the extended
mode its a
different beast. Since most CP/M apps are available as source
it's doable and could result in an interesting hybrid.
Since the eZ80 also has SPI, interfacing to a SDHC card is easy and
gives one gigabytes of storage--a virtual embarrassment of storage.
I seem to recall, however, that the single-density Osborne 1 existed
with two 90KB floppies.
The biggest issue is not the memory or mass storage
system anymore.
It's IO, such as serial line for terminal (did that using FTDI serial
to usb) I've done both bit bash serial and various serial devices
(8250, SIO, 8251). I've also tried memory mapped (16x64 like PT s100
board) video, 8Lx40char LCD (cramped), and so on. The ideal here
would be USB keyboard input (mac mini key board is very short) and VGA
video where the logic is I'm always near a VGA display and a USB
keyboard. Then with CMOS Z80 and and other parts, coompact portable
is doable. I believe something that is portable (battery or wall wart
power) is likely to appeal more to many with the right IO.
The eZ80 Acclaim has UARTs and I think there are more recent members
of the family with USB.
Of course, making use of the 100BaseT ethernet capabilities would
seem to make I/O support rather academic.
But you're probably right about people not wanting to deal with a 144
pin QFP and that's probably the root of the matter.
One could probably do a good job of running 8-bit CP/M with scarcely
more than a suitably-equipped ARM CPU running emulation code and
maybe some external flash device. But that would probably really rub
some semsitivities the wrong way.
All the best,
--Chuck