Zilog System 8000

The MARCH computer museum at New Jersey's Infoage has a Zilog Z8000 model 21. http://www.infoage.org http://midatlanticretro.org/ Sadly, I scrapped my model 21 and 31 when Linux overtook Unix as the preferred software developer's platform. I still have some pieces (SMD hard drive) but I gave away some of the main boards to someone claiming to want them for the CPUs. I'm unsure how to get it running from bare boards because I suspect the backplane was not just parallel connectors. All the slots were specific to the CPU, RAM, disk controller, serial ports, tape drive, etc. How I wish I had photos of the Exxon Office Systems office in New York's Rockefeller center in 1982 when they were selling the Zilog System 8000 running the Zeus OS as servers to Z80 systems running Z-net (their proprietory coax network). Only a few years later at the NJ Trenton Computer Fest, a fellow was selling a pair from the back of a red pickup truck. What a fall from grace! I suspect you'll need the front panel with the reset and interrupt buttons (and a few LEDs) to invoke the ROM monitor. Or at least know where they connect. Yes, I miss having a real ROM monitor but it was no fun working on an abandoned system by myself. I saved the hard drive since I was hoping to use it on another system, failing to predict the amazing velocity of new technology becoming available to everyone.