22 Aug
2001
22 Aug
'01
10:23 a.m.
Hi,
How hot do Z80s get under normal operation? Would you be able to
overclock them using heatsinks without fans? That would simplify things a
bit.
Well I remember my Sinclair ZX spectrum (48k model woohoo!) got warm
enough to be nice to sit on your lap on a cold day, but I think that was
the voltage regulator with the large piece of aluminium used as a heatsync
more than the Z80.
My TRS-80 is a different story tho - the RAM used to heat that one :&)
--Matt
This leads to one mind-boggling possibility. If one
etches custom boards
with eight Z80s each, and pumps all eight each clock, and one takes
several thousand of these boards, wouldn't that be a rather interesting
MPP supercomputer? Would it be more or less money than one made with,
say, IBM POWER4s, or Alphas, or StrongARMs?
Heh! I like it... The chips would be cheaper in bulk as well, and with a
bit of heatsinking it should be possible to overclock them somewhat.