Adafruit FT232H and Z8S180 CSI/O

[Juha Immonen]

Hello everybody!

I’m exploring a way to connect an Adafruit FT232H USB interface board to a Z8S180 system using its CSI/O port. My goal is to transfer data between a PC and the Z8S180 at a reasonable rate (ideally several hundred kbit/s), possibly using the FT232H as a bridge or programmable FIFO-like interface.

Here’s what I’m considering and would appreciate feedback or experience on:

The FT232H supports SPI, I²C, and GPIO through its MPSSE engine, programmable via FTDI’s D2XX library.

The Z8S180 CSI/O port is a synchronous, half-duplex serial interface that can act as master or slave, with separate data and clock lines.

I’m wondering:

Has anyone successfully interfaced the FT232H’s MPSSE (SPI mode) with the Z8S180 CSI/O (either direction)?

I guess it is simplest to FT232H operate as a master device, right?

Has anyone tried using the FT232H in bit-bang mode for a similar synchronous link with Z80/Z180 systems?

I’d be grateful for any wiring diagrams, timing examples, or code snippets in Z80 assembly.

Thanks in advance for any insights!

Juha

[Alan Cox]

I’m exploring a way to connect an Adafruit FT232H USB interface board to a Z8S180 system using its CSI/O port. My goal is to transfer data between a PC and the Z8S180 at a reasonable rate (ideally several hundred kbit/s), possibly using the FT232H as a bridge or programmable FIFO-like interface.

You probably want to have this discussion on retrocomp. It's got more people on it and it deals with Z180 stuff whereas rc2014-z80 is as the name suggests supposed to be used for RC2014 system stuff or some people get grumpy ;-)

Alan