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Please note also - THIS BLOG ENDS HERE WITH THE LAST ENTRY FROM NOVEMBER 9th 2021.

I have prepared a new blog with wordpress at https://vintagecomputing.info !!!

Thank you.

Can be seen here:
http://www.4dsystems.com.au/prod.php?id=22

You only need a power supply with 3.6V-5.5V.
It has a serial interface (TTL levels) with auto-baud feature from 300 to 256K baud rates.
You can use microSD cards up to 2GB (formatted with FAT16).
It's very small and should fit in any vintage computer case.

The price is really fair - $29 is not really expensive.
I've even found a distributor in Europe ( http://www.tigal.com/1556 ).
If you're curious about the commands you have to send, take a look into this PDF:
https://old.4dsystems.com.au/downloads/Semiconductors/GOLDELOX-SGC/Docs/GOLDELOX-SGC-COMMANDS-SIS-rev6.pdf

You have to add a MAX232 or a similar chip for converting voltage level to RS232.

P.S.: Meanwhile I have created an own page for it, see here.

P.P.S.: 4D Systems does not sell nor produce it anymore. Milford Instruments sells it now (search for udrive on their web page).

Have added a download possibility of the CP/M Walnut Creek CD here.

Many (not all) files can be found also here.
The original Simtel website doesn't offer these files anymore, see here.

A few rare files can be found also here.

It's a pitty that there are not many other possibilities.

Because of popular demand - here are some other links, and with a full BEEHIVE branch:

gopher.floodgap.com
www.scovetta.com
z80cpu.eu/mirrors/
ftp.catcorner.org
maben.homeip.net (BEEHIVE missing)
ferretronix.com/march/ (BZIP2 compressed archive)

Added later: There's another ISO image at n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com available.

Vince Briel developed already a lot of other interesting things like a working Apple I replica and a KIM replica (of course 6502 based, not 8080 or Z80).
Now he had a brilliant new idea ... building an Altair replica (with an emulated 8080 cpu based on an ATMEL AVR) ... I was a bit sceptical because an ATMEL CPU isn't a number cruncher monster, but it seems to work - hopefully at least with the speed of the original machine.
Also, I am curious about running CP/M on that machine, did not see any comment so far about it.


Here are the specifications:

Emulated 8080 run at speed or faster than original
32K RAM with BASIC loaded at power up (still in the works may have to load from SD card)
VGA or composite TV video output to a monitor
PS/2 keyboard
SD card slot to load/store software through terminal section
Battery option (not tested, may not work well with so many LED’s)
Diode circuit protection for battery/DC input.

Very nice design also, because you do not need an external terminal, just a VGA monitor and a PS/2 keyboard. Hopefully this project will get finished with a full success.
If anybody has seen screenshots from the working system (screen with CP/M or BASIC...), let me know where...

Wow. I love old computer advertisments. This one is my favorite:

And the page with the Startrek BASIC game will be more interesting than ever ;-)

Please take a look also at the commercial video with William Shatner at Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUEI7mm8M7Q
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVX5cyMOGAk

I got a Sharp PC-1500 last week and I liked it, especially the possibility to use Z80 machine code (exception: status register usage is different). That's very easy, because even if you just have the basic device without anything else, you can use the BASIC commands PEEK, POKE and CALL (you should have an Assembler on a PC but you can dump the binary code so you can "POKE" all bytes into memory).

Also, it's easy to transfer program binaries to the device with the help of a PC... you can play previous recorded WAV files with a sound card, and connect the cassette interface to the PC's audio output. But it's also possible to convert the files to real binaries (e.g. for disassembling).
At the moment I am looking for the interface, PC-1500 accessories are much easier to obtain compared to the previously introduced PC-1211, so it should not take too long to get it.

It's a bit bulky, but this doesn't matter ( it's still smaller then a modern Netbook ;-) ).

A specialized web site is http://www.pc1500.com/ ... a lot of software downloads are there.

The mentioned program for the PC is located at http://pocket.free.fr/html/soft/soft_e.html

Interesting interface to connect a Commodore 1541 to a Sharp PC-1500:
http://www.tramsoft.ch/sharp_erweiterun ... loppy_1500

More technical details (in german):
http://www.duensser.com/pc_pc1500spec.htm
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The later PC-1600 was 100% Z80 compatible due to the additional build in SC7852 (=Z80) CPU.