Date   : Tue, 27 Oct 1992 22:04:54 GMT
From   : comp.vuw.ac.nz!actrix!naos!ewen@uunet.uu.net (Ewen McNeill)
Subject: What is MYZ80?

I've received a number of email messages asking what MyZ80 is, and what
it does.  I didn't post this in my last message because there had been
some discussion recently.  To answer the question, here's a bit of the
documentation file...

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                            M Y Z 8 0
                            ========

                         by Simeon Cran.

Welcome to MYZ80!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MYZ80 is a Z80/64180 emulator package. It was written to allow you 
to finally get rid of those old Z80 computers which have done so 
many fine years of service. The new 80386 machines with the fast 
hard drives and the snazzy OS/2 operating systems are such a 
delight... but for many, the Z80 machines still have to be fired 
up from to time in order to develop code for CP/M and the Z80 
chip. Well, not any more, thanks to MYZ80.

Other emulators on the market are less than satisfactory 
solutions. Of the small number which can actually run without 
causing system errors under the later versions of DOS, apparently 
none are capable of running real CP/M. Instead they use an 
emulated version of CP/M which is only as accurate as the 
developers have bothered to make it.

None can run CP/M 3.0, and none can run ZCPR (which is such a 
useful Z80 developer's environment). Add to that their less than 
perfect Z80 emulation and slow overall performance, and until 
MYZ80, the 'real' Z80 machines were destined to remain in the 
office.

MYZ80 provides the solution being conceived, born and nurtured to 
the point where it is now the most useful Z80 emulator package 
ever!

MYZ80 features.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MYZ80 emulates the instruction set of the 8080, Z80 and Z180/64180 
CPU chips. It does this with the "MicroFast Z80 Emulation Engine" 
which is a very highly tuned piece of code designed to be as fast 
and as accurate as technically possible on 80286, 80386 and 80486 
CPUs.

MYZ80 provides an interface (the MYZ80 API) to the host computer 
which allows real Z80 BDOSes to run in the MYZ80 environment. This 
interface provides disk and character I/O as well as two banks of 
64k RAM (with common area) and a large RAM disk. These unique 
features allow MYZ80 to run 'real' CP/M 2.2, CP/M 3.0, Z-System 
and ZPM3.

MYZ80 is designed for the latest multitasking operating systems 
and makes Z80 programs 'host friendly'. MYZ80 will share time very 
fairly with the host. Even multiple instances of MYZ80 are 
supported.

MYZ80 can take advantage of the latest computer hardware for 
increased performance. The Microfast Z80 Emulation Engine operates 
in either 16 (80286) or 32 (80386/80486) bit mode depending on the 
capabilities of the host computer.

MYZ80 runs beautifully on IBM AT compatible (or better) computers 
under DOS 3.3 compatible (or later) operating systems. This 
includes running under OS/2 2.0, Desqview, and Windows 3.x.
--- cut here --- cut here --- cut here ---

And a little bit detailing the system requirements, from the readme
file.

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                       System Requirements.
                       ===================

For MYZ80 to work at all it needs:
IBM AT compatible (or better)
300k free RAM
DOS 3.3 or later
Disk drive

MYZ80 can also make good use of the following system  resources if 
available (None of these is required to get  good performance  out 
of MYZ80):
Hard disk drive
More than 300k free RAM
DOS 5.00
XMS memory
Multi-tasker (such as OS/2 2.x, Desqview or Windows 3.x)
32 bit CPU (80386,80486)
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MyZ80 does meet it's claims, at least for me.  I'm running it on a
286/10, and the emulated environment is almost as fast as a 3/4Mhz Z80
running native.  On a faster machine, it'd be amazing to use.

To repeat the bit from the previous post; the latest version of MyZ80 is
version 1.03.  I've received several "where can I get it requests".
Because the only site I know that it is definitely on is a long way off
the net and pays for all traffic both incomming and outgoing, I don't
want to post the site address.  Please if I've emailed you the address
and you've retrieved it, would you _please_ upload it to some of the
bigger archive sites (could someone post a message when they've uploaded
it to Simtel, eg).  Thank you.

--
Ewen McNeill, ewen@naos.actrix.gen.nz (or ewen@actrix.gen.nz)