CP/M

CP/M 2.2 runs on the Z80 processor. It is a much cheaper, but also much more limited environment. Programs are written in Z80 assembly, and assembled and linked on the computer itself. It supports disk drives, serial interface cards and MLAPI devices. Hard drives, network cards and the other native devices are ignored without effect.

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

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

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

Drives are lettered in the order they are found, starting at A:. The floppy the computer booted from always comes first. Add another disk drive with a blank floppy for more room, it shows up as B:. Type B: to switch to it.

The prompt has a few built-in commands: DIR lists files, TYPE prints a text file, ERA deletes files and REN NEW.TXT=OLD.TXT renames a file.

ED B:PROG.Z80 creates and edits a source file. To assemble and link a program onto B:, while staying on A::

The first command assembles the source, the second links it into B:REDSTN.COM. The mid-level API entry explains the options and what this example does.

To control devices such as the redstone interface, see the mid-level API. To use the computer from a terminal, see the serial interface card.