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Rick Button
Dec 4, 2014, 2:15:41 AM12/4/14
to
Hi! I've become interested in the Z-100 since I found one in a recycling bin about a half a year ago. I have done a fair bit of research on it, and contacted a few people that have worked with them in the past.
I'm trying to get a feel for who else still has these systems. I contacted Steve Vagts and he still has parts/systems/software.
The problem with this system is that it is so old that much of the information is not available easily on the internet. There are few personal websites from people who own/are interested in the systems, but there are not large resources of information. I think this is due to its age.
I am interested in archiving and cataloging as much software for this system as physically possible digitally in order to preserve this system, with the hope one day that I will have the time to implement an emulator for it. There are no large resources of digitally archived software for this system publicly available. Does anyone have a large personal archive of software for this system that they are willing to share?
Even if you don't have any software to share, say hi! I would love to hear pings from other people who are still interested in the Z-100!
Thanks for reading,
Rick Button
I'm trying to get a feel for who else still has these systems. I contacted Steve Vagts and he still has parts/systems/software.
The problem with this system is that it is so old that much of the information is not available easily on the internet. There are few personal websites from people who own/are interested in the systems, but there are not large resources of information. I think this is due to its age.
I am interested in archiving and cataloging as much software for this system as physically possible digitally in order to preserve this system, with the hope one day that I will have the time to implement an emulator for it. There are no large resources of digitally archived software for this system publicly available. Does anyone have a large personal archive of software for this system that they are willing to share?
Even if you don't have any software to share, say hi! I would love to hear pings from other people who are still interested in the Z-100!
Thanks for reading,
Rick Button
Steve
Dec 4, 2014, 8:30:43 AM12/4/14
to
Rick Button <m...@rickybutton.com> writes:
>Hi! I've become interested in the Z-100 since I found one in a recycling bi=
>n about a half a year ago. I have done a fair bit of research on it, and co=
>
>Even if you don't have any software to share, say hi! I would love to hear =
Well, I still have this group listed in my reader, if that counts. I have some
Z-100 computers, though none are currently working. I suppose I can say I
have some of the "standard" software and documentation. (Somewhere...)
Any unique software I have probably applies to specific hardware or programming
interests of mine back then.
Hope you find what you need to get running.
Regards,
Steve N.
>Hi! I've become interested in the Z-100 since I found one in a recycling bi=
>n about a half a year ago. I have done a fair bit of research on it, and co=
>ntacted a few people that have worked with them in the past.
<Snip>
>
>Even if you don't have any software to share, say hi! I would love to hear =
>pings from other people who are still interested in the Z-100!
Hi Rick,
Well, I still have this group listed in my reader, if that counts. I have some
Z-100 computers, though none are currently working. I suppose I can say I
have some of the "standard" software and documentation. (Somewhere...)
Any unique software I have probably applies to specific hardware or programming
interests of mine back then.
Hope you find what you need to get running.
Regards,
Steve N.
Bob Groh
Dec 4, 2014, 10:09:58 AM12/4/14
to
There is a Google Heathkit computer group (SEBHC) :
https://groups.google.com/forum/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer#!forum/sebhc
which is quite active - they mostly concentrate on the H-8 and H-89 but they do dabble in the Z-100 family every now and then. You might give them a try.
Hope you take the time to get your machine going and good luck on your project.
Bob Groh, Blue Springs, Missouri
Heathkit Engineer (Ham Radio Group) from 1977 to 1981
GC
Dec 5, 2014, 12:04:20 PM12/5/14
to
Rick:
Although I don¹t have a large software collection for the Z-100, I did write
the first versions of the boot ROM for it, and have a patent in the design
of the video in the Z-100. Most of my software was MS-DOS (Z-DOS) software,
although it also ran CP/M (85 and x86). It has both an 8088 and an 8085 in
it. Barry Watzman wasn¹t so sure that the x86 architecture would survive,
so as the marketing guy at the time, he insisted on both processors. He has
since died.
The boot ROM also emulated the H-19 terminal, although I have been lead to
believe by others that CP/M did not take good advantage of this--I believe ZDOS did. From an
emulation standpoint, the Z-100 is mostly PC-like, albeit with different
video‹more like VGA, although it was released in an EGA era.
Babu Rajaram was the lead engineer on the project. Mark Nichol (sp?) was
his technician at the time. I believe he put schematics on the web at one
point in time. Last I knew, he was at AMD in Texas. Dave Perkins did the
MS-DOS/Z-DOS porting. I went out to Redmond to make sure that the DOS
versions of what are now the MS office products ran on it. There was a
MS-DOS version of word, , and a spread-sheet as well. Can¹t remember the
name of the DOS version of Excel‹Multiplan?.
The Z-100 was a nice machine, from a by-gone era‹before most of the design
was in one chip.
Does your Z-100 have the integral monitor, or is it low profile (separate
monitor usually sits on top)?
Gregg Chandler
Enthusiastic Software
Although I don¹t have a large software collection for the Z-100, I did write
the first versions of the boot ROM for it, and have a patent in the design
of the video in the Z-100. Most of my software was MS-DOS (Z-DOS) software,
although it also ran CP/M (85 and x86). It has both an 8088 and an 8085 in
it. Barry Watzman wasn¹t so sure that the x86 architecture would survive,
so as the marketing guy at the time, he insisted on both processors. He has
since died.
The boot ROM also emulated the H-19 terminal, although I have been lead to
believe by others that CP/M did not take good advantage of this--I believe ZDOS did. From an
emulation standpoint, the Z-100 is mostly PC-like, albeit with different
video‹more like VGA, although it was released in an EGA era.
Babu Rajaram was the lead engineer on the project. Mark Nichol (sp?) was
his technician at the time. I believe he put schematics on the web at one
point in time. Last I knew, he was at AMD in Texas. Dave Perkins did the
MS-DOS/Z-DOS porting. I went out to Redmond to make sure that the DOS
versions of what are now the MS office products ran on it. There was a
MS-DOS version of word, , and a spread-sheet as well. Can¹t remember the
name of the DOS version of Excel‹Multiplan?.
The Z-100 was a nice machine, from a by-gone era‹before most of the design
was in one chip.
Does your Z-100 have the integral monitor, or is it low profile (separate
monitor usually sits on top)?
Gregg Chandler
Enthusiastic Software
Rick Button
Dec 6, 2014, 7:16:55 AM12/6/14
to
It is great to hear from so many people so quickly. I was afraid that I would not get any replies!
Gregg: I have the low profile model, with the monitor that I assume came with it when purchased. Still works great (other than a broken second floppy drive, which I am going to fix soon).
It is good to know for sure that it is similar to PC from an emulation standpoint. I have many scanned documents (technical manuals and hardware manuals) from Barry Watzman that I have skimmed and I came to a similar conclusion.
Gregg: I have the low profile model, with the monitor that I assume came with it when purchased. Still works great (other than a broken second floppy drive, which I am going to fix soon).
It is good to know for sure that it is similar to PC from an emulation standpoint. I have many scanned documents (technical manuals and hardware manuals) from Barry Watzman that I have skimmed and I came to a similar conclusion.
ECNeilson
Jan 9, 2015, 5:33:58 PM1/9/15
to
>>The problem with this system is that it is so old that much of the information is not available easily on the internet.
Fear not, my Z-100 brother! There are still a few of us dedicated to preserving the legacy of this marvelous computer. May I present to you and the rest this newsgroup a definitive archive of Z-100 software and manuals for your enjoyment:
http://planemo.org/retro/definitive-z-100-software-manual-repository/
Here you will find CP/M, CP/M3, CP/M-86, ZDOS, and even some Concurrent CP/M software - everything you need to bring your Z-100 back to flourishing life.
Ronald Wochner
Jul 8, 2015, 3:21:58 AM7/8/15
to
I really need to turn email notifications for this group back on :/ Pretty awesome to hear other people's interest, and some really cool stories from the people that helped make this amazing machine! My Z-100's (I have three lo-pro's, one with a gemini card, one 'vanilla' dual floppy, and one with a winchester card and a bad winchester drive. Need to try the cap?(resistor? need to look it up again) trick to see if that will get the drive back up.) Er, as I was saying, they are the crown jewels of my vintage collection, which is not insignificant. My wife refers to them as my orphans... Also have plans to build the CF/IDE card from S100computers.com (and the n8vem-s100 group) in order to get a 'hard disk' that is a little more... stable. And easier to replace :D.
Greg, I'd especially love to pick your brains at some point! I am slowly learning about the system, and there is a lot of great information on getting CP/M up on the S100computers group. But my goal, which is probably incredibly over-ambitious, is to get a *Nix clone, either real unix, Some flavor of Linux that still supported the 8086, or, as one friend suggested, just write my own.... I have CP/M 85 and 86, as well as Z-DOS, I think both 1 and 2, and 3.1? Need to look again, been a bit. These machines were literally the first computer I ever saw as a child, and I was frustrated at being forbidden to touch, (I was only 4 years old, to be fair) and... yeah. I really want to write my own OS, but that requires tools I don't have, and skills :P LOL. I started learning ANSI C when I started to learn programming, figuring that I could use *most* of the things I learned equally well on new or old equipment, with a minimal amount of 'fussing'. Offers some great flexibility. I have a great copy of the Turbo C++ compiler, but that requires a hard disk... so I have to get that working some how. I may dig through that software archive for other compilers that I can try to put on a floppy though! I also have a 386 clone, with IDE drive, cd rom, 3.5 and 5.25 floppy drives... so that makes a great intermediate machine.
Sorry, it's late, ADD meds wore off long ago and I am very enthusiastic about these machines. LOL. Please forgive the long, rambling post.
Anyway, Greg - especially as you wrote the boot ROM, I hope that at some point I can discuss with you what is involved in that, and how I go about the jump from 'boot rom initializes all the hardware, takes I/O, etc' to 'hands over everything to the OS' - and how to handle the OS drivers. I need to study a lot more about OS design and construction, etc. But I feel like there is probably an abstraction that explains it, that I am missing.
Ok, enough fanboy drooling and hero worship, and Rick, PLEASE post back with any updates you have, would love to see how the project is coming along!
Ron
Greg, I'd especially love to pick your brains at some point! I am slowly learning about the system, and there is a lot of great information on getting CP/M up on the S100computers group. But my goal, which is probably incredibly over-ambitious, is to get a *Nix clone, either real unix, Some flavor of Linux that still supported the 8086, or, as one friend suggested, just write my own.... I have CP/M 85 and 86, as well as Z-DOS, I think both 1 and 2, and 3.1? Need to look again, been a bit. These machines were literally the first computer I ever saw as a child, and I was frustrated at being forbidden to touch, (I was only 4 years old, to be fair) and... yeah. I really want to write my own OS, but that requires tools I don't have, and skills :P LOL. I started learning ANSI C when I started to learn programming, figuring that I could use *most* of the things I learned equally well on new or old equipment, with a minimal amount of 'fussing'. Offers some great flexibility. I have a great copy of the Turbo C++ compiler, but that requires a hard disk... so I have to get that working some how. I may dig through that software archive for other compilers that I can try to put on a floppy though! I also have a 386 clone, with IDE drive, cd rom, 3.5 and 5.25 floppy drives... so that makes a great intermediate machine.
Sorry, it's late, ADD meds wore off long ago and I am very enthusiastic about these machines. LOL. Please forgive the long, rambling post.
Anyway, Greg - especially as you wrote the boot ROM, I hope that at some point I can discuss with you what is involved in that, and how I go about the jump from 'boot rom initializes all the hardware, takes I/O, etc' to 'hands over everything to the OS' - and how to handle the OS drivers. I need to study a lot more about OS design and construction, etc. But I feel like there is probably an abstraction that explains it, that I am missing.
Ok, enough fanboy drooling and hero worship, and Rick, PLEASE post back with any updates you have, would love to see how the project is coming along!
Ron
GC
Jul 9, 2015, 6:39:21 PM7/9/15
to
If you want to understand the boot ROM, I would suggest that you get a copy
of the listings. I imagine they are findable somewhere online. The ROM is
mostly written in PL/M, with some critical parts written in assembler. I
used Lex and YACC to further optimize some of the PL/M generated code. I
don¹t believe that I kept a copy of the source. It was developed on an
Intel MDS. I would need to pull the listings myself, as I have written a
lot of code since then, to remember the boot sequence. I also have a patent
on part of the video hardware design. Babu has quite a few more. I hope
you have as much joy owning them as we had designing them.
of the listings. I imagine they are findable somewhere online. The ROM is
mostly written in PL/M, with some critical parts written in assembler. I
used Lex and YACC to further optimize some of the PL/M generated code. I
don¹t believe that I kept a copy of the source. It was developed on an
Intel MDS. I would need to pull the listings myself, as I have written a
lot of code since then, to remember the boot sequence. I also have a patent
on part of the video hardware design. Babu has quite a few more. I hope
you have as much joy owning them as we had designing them.
Myron A. Calhoun
Jul 11, 2015, 4:20:36 PM7/11/15
to
As a one-time-long-ago owner of 16 Z-100's, I still monitor the newsgroup;
these are the first two postings I've seen in a long time. It was a nice
machine, and I had a lot of fun with it. Still wish I had its keyboard
on this Inferior-But-Marketable PC.
--
-- Myron A. Calhoun.
Five boxes preserve our freedoms: soap, ballot, witness, jury, and cartridge
NRA Life Member & Certified Rifle, Pistol, & Home Firearm Safety Instructor
these are the first two postings I've seen in a long time. It was a nice
machine, and I had a lot of fun with it. Still wish I had its keyboard
on this Inferior-But-Marketable PC.
--
-- Myron A. Calhoun.
Five boxes preserve our freedoms: soap, ballot, witness, jury, and cartridge
NRA Life Member & Certified Rifle, Pistol, & Home Firearm Safety Instructor
Message has been deleted
Joe Matta
Mar 30, 2021, 2:12:13 AM3/30/21
to
Hello everyone:
Not sure if you are all still around and checking these posts, but I figured I'd take my chances. I'm looking for the ROM listing for version 2.9 of the Zenith Z-100 BIOS. I can only find the version 2.5 ROM listing. If you have any information about this, or if you can point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks!
Joe
Timothy McCaffrey
Nov 13, 2023, 4:42:44 PM11/13/23
to
- Tim
retrogear
Nov 16, 2023, 8:04:29 AM11/16/23
to
> I really need to get my Z-100 out of the basement and see if I can get it to boot. :(
>
> - Tim
Larry G
Dave McGuire
Nov 27, 2023, 10:29:43 AM11/27/23
to
On 11/13/23 16:42, Timothy McCaffrey wrote:
>> Not sure if you are all still around and checking these posts, but I figured I'd take my chances. I'm looking for the ROM listing for version 2.9 of the Zenith Z-100 BIOS. I can only find the version 2.5 ROM listing. If you have any information about this, or if you can point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it.
>
>> Not sure if you are all still around and checking these posts, but I figured I'd take my chances. I'm looking for the ROM listing for version 2.9 of the Zenith Z-100 BIOS. I can only find the version 2.5 ROM listing. If you have any information about this, or if you can point me in the right direction I would greatly appreciate it.
>
> I really need to get my Z-100 out of the basement and see if I can get it to boot. :(
You (and the OP) might want to check out the SEBHC (Society of
Eight-bit Heathkit Computerists) mailing list on (ugh) Google Groups.
It's quite a dynamic group of guys doing great work on Heath machines,
including designing new boards for them, etc.
To the OP: Someone there has to have that source listing.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, President/Curator
Large Scale Systems Museum
New Kensington, PA
pbi...@gmail.com
Nov 28, 2023, 7:54:20 AM11/28/23
to
On Monday, November 27, 2023 at 10:29:43 AM UTC-5, Dave McGuire wrote:
> On 11/13/23 16:42, Timothy McCaffrey wrote:
> > ...
> On 11/13/23 16:42, Timothy McCaffrey wrote:
> > I really need to get my Z-100 out of the basement and see if I can get it to boot. :(
> You (and the OP) might want to check out the SEBHC (Society of
> Eight-bit Heathkit Computerists) mailing list on (ugh) Google Groups.
> It's quite a dynamic group of guys doing great work on Heath machines,
> including designing new boards for them, etc.
Agree, however specific to the Z-100 you might want to look into https://z100lifeline.swvagts.com/
> You (and the OP) might want to check out the SEBHC (Society of
> Eight-bit Heathkit Computerists) mailing list on (ugh) Google Groups.
> It's quite a dynamic group of guys doing great work on Heath machines,
> including designing new boards for them, etc.
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