Google Groups no longer supports new Usenet posts or subscriptions. Historical content remains viewable.
Dismiss

Z8002 cpm

285 views
Skip to first unread message

alister....@btinternet.com

unread,
Dec 11, 2017, 12:02:40 PM12/11/17
to
Just to let you know that all the source you need is on Gabby's site, you just have to pick a bits from all three archives.
With some help from a buggy Z8000 emulator core from Mame, z8k-coff-gcc and some old school debugging I have zcc producing output that looks OK. Yet to actually run something compiled from zcc but I needed some gloat time.

My current setup runs Z8000-CPM in an emulator. CCP commands, Dump, Pip, Stat all work. DDT needs some more work. Aszk8, nmZ8k, xdump, sizez8k all work. Haven't tried ed, ar8k or ld8k yet.

I need some time to tidy things up and produce a 'giants shoulders' list but I am happy to let anyone known how I did it if anyone is interested.

Bruce Mardle

unread,
Dec 13, 2017, 10:30:57 AM12/13/17
to
Sounds fun!
I tried building a cross-assembler from the CPM Z8k source a while ago but it has some strange habits (e.g. it assumes that sbrk returns the address that the next call to malloc will return). I think the latest version of the Z8001 segmented-mode assembler I wrote is languishing on 3" (sic) Amstrad PCW disks. I must get it and my Z8001 homebrew up and running again one day!

alister....@btinternet.com

unread,
Dec 13, 2017, 1:39:15 PM12/13/17
to
On Monday, 11 December 2017 17:02:40 UTC, alister....@btinternet.com wrote:

alister....@btinternet.com

unread,
Dec 13, 2017, 1:43:36 PM12/13/17
to
Yes, tried that, the virtual memory management is 'interesting'. It turns out its easier to write an emulator and run the binary.

rfka01

unread,
Dec 13, 2017, 2:31:37 PM12/13/17
to
Hi Allister,
it would be great if you could provide feedback on MAME's Z8000 bugs, as
machines like the Olivetti M20 rely on that CPU core.

Robert

---
Diese E-Mail wurde von Avast Antivirus-Software auf Viren geprüft.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus

alister....@btinternet.com

unread,
Dec 14, 2017, 3:49:27 AM12/14/17
to
Just to clarify things I am not criticising the work of the Mame project I know
from experience how much work it takes to program a cpu core. Without their core
files I probably wouldn't have got very far.
Also through choice I used an old release, 0.152, of Mame as I am not a C++
programmer incorrectly assuming that there was no current development for Z8000.
I have downloaded the latest release of Mame and will check the Z8000 stuff and
let you know if these's anything I have found that is not there.

rfka01

unread,
Dec 15, 2017, 4:15:22 PM12/15/17
to
Hi Allister,
thanks, and don't worry. The M20 is one of the machines I care about, so
I immediately perked up when you mentioned MAME and the Z8000 together.

Looking forward to learning about any improvement you can offer!

Robert
0 new messages