|-----Original Message----- |From: tclug-list-admin at mn-linux.org |[mailto:tclug-list-admin at mn-linux.org]On Behalf Of Simeon Johnston |Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 12:07 PM |To: tclug-list at mn-linux.org |Subject: Re: [TCLUG] Stuff I found/got at auction. What now? | | |Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom wrote: |> |> > 2x - Apple IIe's. What can these possibly be used for? |I don't even |> > know what OS these run... |> they don't really have an OS... there's an Apple BASIC |interpreter |> built into the ROM (sometimes I wish x86 boxen had something |like this..); |> which serves as a bootloader for whatever program you have. |> somewhere I probably still have a pile of 5.25" floppies with my |> Apple BASIC programs on it. | |We actually have/had one with a Z80 card in it. Man that looked |interesting. |IIRC Z80 is a pre x86 processor right? I think it was like the PC card |in the 6100's. The Zilog Z80 was a souped up version of the Intel 8080 with a few extra instructions. It was an 8-bit processor. My father-in-law added one to his Apple II so that he could run CP/M programs on it. It was the processor that ran in the Radio Shack TRS-80 and at least one version of the Heathkit computers (H-8 ?) and the early CP/M portables from Kaypro, et al. (at 25 lbs. or more). It gave Intel a run for their money until they came out with the 8088. Even after that NEC marketed a V-20 chip that emulated the Z-80 and ran 8088 instructions (faster and better that Intel...). At first MS-DOS programs were few and far between and most people still relied on CP/M stuff that was ported over or else ran CP/M in software emulation (slow-on a 4.77 MHz machine) or had dual processor machines (the Heathkit H-100 had an 8088 and 8085 that was selected at boot time). Just a little history on a Friday afternoon...