Date   : Mon, 29 Feb 1988 02:06:24 GMT
From   : rochester!ciaraldi@louie.udel.edu (Mike Ciaraldi)
Subject: z80-cpm boards for IBM-PCs

In article <8802190016.AA01488@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> JAJZ801@CALSTATE.BITNET
(JEFFREY SICHERMAN - CALSTATE LONG BEACH) writes:
>
>  I would be interested in anybody's experiences and recommendations for
>addin boards for IBM-PCs that run CPM and are based on the z80 processor.
>It must have a parallel port capable of driving a centonics-type printer
>interface and it would be nice if there were already software driver hooks
>for passing data back and forth from the PC side to the CPM side that
>appeared as a device to both (i.e. assign as device or use as source or
>destination in copy/pip commands) but this is not essential.
>
I have a "Baby Blue" board that I bought cheap at a close-out
sale and never got to work.  As far as I know, the ones still being
made (as advertised in magazines like Dr. Dobbs) go for around $200,
but I have no experience with them.

BUT, I have used the program Z80MU, which is a free Z-80+CP/M 
emulator done entirely in software, and available wherever good
public domain and shareware programs are.
It is not as fast as a real Z-80, but it is not bad.

Advantages:  Low cost (i.e. $00.00), access to all DOS facilities
(subdirectories, printers,  and so on) as well as all CP/M commands,
and support for large programs (a 60K Transient Program Area).
The authors estimate it runs at about the speed of
a 1MHz Z-80 on a standard 4.77 MHz IBM PC>

I have run the CP/M Microsoft BASIC interpreter and compiler,
and Turbo Pascal, with no trouble.

One other advantage is that it lets you run CP/M programs without having
to prepend a loader program to each one, 
which is required for the Baby Blue.

So, if you don't need to run lots of CP/M programs
(at least so many that speed is really important),
try Z80MU!

Mike "Feet in Two Worlds" Ciaraldi
arpa:  ciaraldi@cs.rochester.edu
uucp:  seismo!rochester!ciaraldi


End of INFO-CPM Digest
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