Re: TI-H: General questions with a possibly big im
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Re: TI-H: General questions with a possibly big im
I have been working on a design similar to this. It is a modular Z80
desgin. It can be used from personal computer use like you want to, or
as a data collection system, or as a sophisticated controller, or about
a thousand other things you can thing of. I'm only in the design stages
right now.
>From: kaus@cybrzn.com
>Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 23:25:50 -0600
>Subject: Re: TI-H: General questions with a possibly big im
>To: ti-hardware@lists.ticalc.org
>Reply-To: ti-hardware@lists.ticalc.org
>
>
>Thanks for your input, Mel. You've shown me how my idea would be
>impossible and therfore saved me hours of trying to get it to work:)
>Youre idea sounds complicated, and like you said, the average
electrical
>hobbiest wouldn't be able to do it. I certainly would be lost, but
then
>again, I dont claim to be much of an electronic hobbiest either:) The
>reson i wanted to do this anyway was most for personal reasons. I am a
>programmer. Pretty much cut and dry. I program. But, as a
programmer,
>i am insulted by the limits TI poses on us with their calculators. I
>want complete control over teh entire computer system, which TI just
>doesn't give me. I therefore am obliged to announce that i am going to
>create a better Z80 computer system that can be just as small, but more
>hardware adaptable and controllable. Someone wants a memory expander,
>they plug in the chips to the parelel bus port out of the system and
>install a driver. I dont want to be limited by TI-OS constraints. I
>want overlays, i want Shell startup, i want complete interupt control,
i
>want most of the 64k RAM for my progs to work in, I want, I want, I
>want, I want!
>So, I was wondering: you said lots of people sell Z80 microproccesors?
>do they sell them singly? I dont think Zilog does. Maybe, i dont
know.
> I fthey did, i could slap that on a baord, with power supply,
>oscillator, and a big wide bus to put stuff on containing all of the 40
>pins from the processor. With the Low profile thingies in computers, i
>can put SIM like memory modules in theri depending on how I want it
>setup. A 2K System Rom would be sufficent, for all it has to do is
load
>up the actual shell from the memory expander built in to the system.
It
>could be a very simple expander, for it can work 8 bits at a time,
>instead of serially. The shell can do the rest. The hard parts would
>be getting the ROM done. I dont know if companies do this for
consumers
>on a small scale basis, or if i could do it myslef, id ont know.
>another problem would be the video. If we chose th TI way, we would
>need dual access RAM for the video RAM, and i dont know if/where they
>sell that, or how expensive it is. Also, the screen itslelf i dont
know
>how to do. Anyway, programmers would love it, USer's would love it
>(bigger games!) and people could sell them (for only the cost of the
>building, almost nill profit, to keep the price reasonable. Hardware
>hackers would love it cause they could make all sorts of devices to
plug
>into the thing, and they could even work together. I dont know how
much
>this ould all cost, it probably would be expensive. but maybe not. I
>would do it anyway if it was under $200 or so. :) I would need a lot
>of help with this, but it would be worth all effort if it lived up to
>expectations. And think how much fun it would be!
>
>at is all i ahve to say for now i think.
>
>Jonathan KAus
>kaus@cybrzn.com
>
>
>
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