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Z8000 board for IBM PC

M

mdh

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I think it was a Steve Ciarcia project. I had one, I remember connecting to it via a program I think, and you could also use the ram on the system as a RAM disk on the PC side. Can’t remember much else. I did write several assembly programs for it.
anyone else have one of these?
 
No, but around 1983-87 there were a bunch of "different CPU" boards for the 8 bit ISA bus, including such stuff as NS16032. I have an old Palantir board with a 68010 on it and 4MB of memory. I don't have a clue on how to interface to it.
 
The Steve Ciarcia card for the IBM PC was called the TRUMP card.

I don’t have one, but was looking for one for ages. However, the software also proved elusive, so would have not been very useful in the end...

Dave
 
I am aware of the fact that this thread is a bit old, but I have feedback that might be of interest.
I built a Trump Card back then - probably mid-80's - and I contacted Steve Ciarcia who very kindly sent me the entire documentation and the software on two 5.25" floppies.
I still have the card and the binder with the documentation but the floppies were missing, until a few days ago when I stumbled upon them while searching for something totally unrelated.
Using a greaseweazle, I have recovered the software with success. If anyone out there needs this, I'd be happy to upload to some convenient place. Once compressed, it adds up to two 190 KB zip-files.
Unfortunately, the Trump card needs a first generation PC that I don't have, so I am unable to put the card to work. Back then, it was revolutionary with speeds you'd only dream about.
Finn
 
That would be really useful if you could provide a copy of the Trump software.

Perhaps bitsavers as a repository?

Dave
 
FinnJorgensen said:
.... and I contacted Steve Ciarcia who very kindly sent me the entire documentation and the software on two 5.25" floppies.
Click to expand...
Do you have the schematics as well? If so would you mind sharing them and the documentation? Thank you in advance!

FinnJorgensen said:
Unfortunately, the Trump card needs a first generation PC ...
Click to expand...
Do you mean an IBM 5150? Or would a 5160 / XT compatible clone do as well? Second thought: would any PC with an ISA bus do?

FinnJorgensen said:
I still have the card ....
Click to expand...
What are your plans to do with it?
 
Ruud said:
Do you have the schematics as well? If so would you mind sharing them and the documentation? Thank you in advance!
Click to expand...
The schematics are included in the Byte article that can be found here http://www.dtweed.com/circuitcellar/trumpcrd.pdf, so this is not a problem.
I do have the schematics, though, and the documentation and I'm OK with sharing; but the documentation will take some time to scan. Close to 300 pages...
I am aware that these things have become unobtainium and that it is important to preserve them so I'll do my best.
If someone wants to build the card using these schematics, I'll point out an error page 46, IC20. The line that connects pins 2, 5 and 10 should go to pin 13, not pin 12. This is obvious when you check the schematics, but, well...
Ruud said:
Do you mean an IBM 5150? Or would a 5160 / XT compatible clone do as well? Second thought: would any PC with an ISA bus do?
Click to expand...
I was a bit unclear. Any ISA bus PC should work. My setup was a Megaboard clone and it worked flawlessly.
Ruud said:
What are your plans to do with it?
Click to expand...
Frankly, I don't know. For sentimental reasons, I want to keep it, but, on the other side, it would be nice if someone could bring it back to life. It worked when I stopped using it, but 20 memory chips are missing out of 64. These are MCM6665BP15 so they should be fairly easy to replace. The EPROMs may need to be reprogrammed as well.

Finn
 
Those RAM chips are just pretty standard 64K*1 DRAM chips. You just need to make sure that you are buying a part with the same (or faster) access time (<= 150 ns).

As you say, it should work on any ISA bus PC.

I was going to build one many years ago (I bought most of the chips at the time). The problem area was the software. Perhaps that has now been solved?

If you upload the software to some convenient location, and post a link to it here, then our wonderful documentation wizard (@Al Kossow) may upload it to bitsavers (with any luck)...

Perhaps I can resurrect my project - after doing the other 100 projects in the queue ahead of it!

Many thanks for resurrecting this old thread and adding value to it.

Dave
 
syzygy said:
Interesting article here with two vids. Eventually, he did find the software.

@FinnJorgensen do your disks have the same files as listed on the directory screen on the aforementioned article?
Click to expand...
Yes, I have read the article. Others have tried to contact him about the software but got no reply.
His version seems more recent than mine (His : 2.14, mine : 1.6), we do have approximately the same files. I don't have ABORTPRT and DISKCOPY, but the others are the same. Probably some later additions.
 
Bummer, I thought I had a Z8001 but it is a Z8002, the non-segmented version. But the schematic gives me an head-start to create my own card (once I find some time).

Just to have in idea what I mean: my Z80-in-PC card.
 
I think the Z8002 is limited to a 64KB address range as well isn't it? This may limit the software that can run on it.

I think the Z8K is still purchasable today, just under a different part number - and not from Zilog...

Dave
 
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