Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:06:07 -0400 From: Allison You could simply skip the work with soldering iron and implement the same with an emulator on, say, an iPod Touch, with full color graphics, sound and gigs of memory that runs at many times the speed of the Z80. No need for a terminal--program while you're standing in line at the DMV--and no messy sticking things together with bits of hot metal. But then, why do people on this list collect slow bulky old iron that drink power like there's no tomorrow and require careful nursing of ageing components? I submit that they're not collected (for the most part) to do useful work, but rather to recreate an experience or attempt to gain a shadow of one. I remember that my late father started to collect old radios from the 1920s and then abruptly stopped and disposed of his collection. His reason was that "it just wasn't the same". The radio stations didn't broadcast the same programs and he knew that there was better, easier to use equipment with great fidelity and ease of use. And he wasn't the same kid living in a tenement in 1925, scrounging batteries and odds and ends. So, perhaps even though you're not recreating an accurate circa-1978 CP/M experience Allison, it's just as well. We can't go home again. You don't have an audience with a circa-1978 mindset. Today's audiences have been conditioned by what they have around them. CP/M must seem as quaint as a leisure suit or love beads. Me, I miss the big iron. But even if I owned a full 7090 installation or STAR-100 "supercomputer" and could afford the utility bills to run them, there would always be the itch in the back of my skull that a personal computer could run rings around the behemoths-- and be one heckuva a lot quieter and more reliable. Cheers, Chuck