Z80 Processor

The processor is what a computer or robot actually computes with. Without one in its processor slot, a machine will not start.

This is an 8-bit Z80 processor. Its flash memory holds a loader that boots CP/M 2.2 off a floppy, it addresses 64K of memory whatever size module you install, and it needs very little hardware around it. Devices available through the MLAPI, such as the redstone interface, work as expected. Hard drives, network cards and the other native devices go unused, as the Z80 has no drivers for them. They can stay on the bus regardless.

Also see the RISC-V processor.

Build the machine as described in getting started, using these parts:

Power it and turn it on. The loader finds the system floppy and boots CP/M to its prompt, A>. Run DIR to see what came on the disk:

Drive A: is the floppy you booted from, and you can write to it. Add another disk drive with a blank floppy for more room; it shows up as B:.

A robot has a floppy slot of its own, so it can have a system disk without a disk drive.

You can now add more devices, depending on what you want to use your computer for. For information on how to control devices, and how to build and run the worked example, have a look at the MLAPI manual entry.

You can compile programs using the included ZMAC (assembler) and ZML (linker) programs.

To compile to a secondary drive, while staying on A:, you can do the following:

/O puts the object file on B:. /E turns off the error log.