Z80 Processor Card for Z50Bus

[Steve Cousins]

I've now built my Z80 processor card for the Z50Bus. 

It appears to be working well, but I need to make some other cards to more fully test it. When I'm satisfied I'll make the card available.

This card contains a Z80 CPU, 128k bytes of RAM, 32k bytes of ROM, a simple bit-bang serial port (9600 baud) to get you started, and it runs a version of the Small Computer Monitor - just like its big brother the LiNC80 SBC. It can run as a standalone Single Board Computer (SBC) without being plugged in to a Z50Bus, but is really designed as the processor for a multi card Z50Bus system. So I now need to design a Compact Flash adapter card, a high speed serial port, and a few others.

Steve

[Steve Cousins]

I've attached the schematic

[Jon Langseth]

Congratulations on announcing the first official alternative processor/host board for the Z50Bus!

To avoid confusion in the context of the LiNC80, this processor board plugs into a Z50Bus backplane as a host, and replaces the LiNC80 SBC1, it is not an expansion...
It makes me happy to see alternatives to the LiNC80 SBC1 for the Z50Bus, the bus specification was intended to be openly available and used.

The approach of using "simple logic" to implement a bit-bang serial port, and including just the core devices, makes for a nice, low-cost entry system. Using this as a simple stand-alone single board computer, it should be easily possible to power it over a standard FTDI-like USB-to-serial adapter set to 5V logic and supply.