dars007 / z80-mbc2_guide

User guide for great Z80-MBC2 vintage microcomputer

Z80-MBC2_guide

A kind of a user guide for the great Z80-MBC2 single board computer is in the PDF document. Download the PDF and use freely.

Project pages:

• https://hackaday.io/project/159973-z80-mbc2-4ics-homemade-z80-computer
• https://github.com/SuperFabius/Z80-MBC2

Just a word of caution: Z80-MBC2 is NOT a typical microcomputer you might know from 70’s and 80’s of the previous century. You will NOT find here a glue logic you might be familiar with. Instead, get ready for a new, genius concept of merging two worlds: AVR/ATmega and Z80.

ATmega plays a role of system supervisor that prepares a comfortable environment for it’s Z80 mate. And only when everything is ready, Z80 is enabled to run and execute it’s user code.

This mimics well the modern ‘software-defined XXX’ trend. Z80 clock, for instance, is generated by ATmega and it’s value can be controlled by the software (4 or 8 MHz). The same with hard disks (emulated by ATmega and SD card) or serial interface (emulated by ATmega).