Date : Fri, 25 Jan 1991 05:01:50 GMT
From : usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!austex!roadhog@apple.com (Lindsay Haisley)
Subject: Z80 Emulator
Discussion on this newsgroup of Z80 emultors brings me to a question to
which I've been looking for an answer for some time. Is there an MS-DOS
based Z80 emulator out there which does a >>full<< emulation of the CP/M
BIOS, including disk functions. I'm looking for an emulator with a monitor
debugger which will allow me to work effectively on CCP, BDOS and ZCPR3
system components. The emulators I've seen so far (which isn't very many)
allow running plain vanilla CP/M programs under a simulated BDOS and, as
in the case of Z80MU, don't really support disk functions. Joan Riff and
company don't seem to understand that a CP/M disk is just a doubly sub-
scripted array from the point of view of the BIOS, and any managing
software need only be able to import and optionally export "files" from
this data structure to and from true files in the MS-DOS environment, a
fairly simple job. The BDOS file handling system is much more complex,
but there are enough copies of the CP/M BDOS, ZRDOS, NovaDOS, ZSDOS,
etc. around to handle the job if BIOS emulation is properly done, and a
boot routine is provided to load some system software into the emulated
64K Z80 memory domain. Such a system would provide maximum flexibility
in CP/M emulation. Riff seems to have the attitude that anything other
than plain vanilla CP/M (e.g. ZCPR3) or stock MS-DOS (e.g. 4DOS) is a sin
against nature and the users of same should take their computers and go
straight to the Warm Place. On top of that, newer versions of Z80MU are
severely overpriced (considering that they don't do a true CP/M BIOS
emulation) at $150, for which price I can buy Borland's Turbo C++
Professional or similar package with loads of disks, documentation,
examples, etc....
Lindsay Haisley
"Everything works if you let it!"
--- Travis J. Redfish
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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