I bought a Z80-MBC2 homebrew computer
I ordered a Z80-MBC2 Limited Edition Tin, an awesome homebrew Z80 single-board computer. It's available as a kit but I picked an assembled unit as I'm not familiar with hardware and soldering.
It was part planned and part impulse buy.
My Suite8080 project, a suite of Intel 8080 Aseembly cross-development tools I'm writing in Python, is making me rediscover the 8080 and Z80 CPUs, CP/M, and retrocomputing.
I'm having a lot of fun writing 8080 Assembly programs and running them under CP/M emulators, but I'd like to test my code also on actual hardware. So a few months ago I ordered a Z80 Membership Card, a homebrew 4 MHz Z80 single-board computer that runs CP/M 2.2. It comes only as a kit, so I'm having a hardware-savvy friend assemble it.
Yesterday I was googling for more Z80 homebrew computers and run across the Z80-MBC2. I noticed its impressive features such as an 8 MHz Z80, support for running different operating systems, including CP/M 2.2 and 3, and more. The product soon ended up in my shopping cart.
There's another reason why I want a second Z80 computer: redundancy.
I'll access these computers by connecting them to my Chrome OS devices via serial USB and running a terminal emulator. However, Chrome OS may or may not support the serial USB adapters of those computers and the only way to know is to try them. A second unit improves the odds at least one of them works.
For maximum flexibility I'd like to access the computers from Crostini Linux, but its sandbox may limit USB access. There are other options, such as running a Web Serial terminal emulator app under Chrome OS, or a similar app in the Android container. As a last resort, it should be possible to hook up the computers to my Android devices via an OTG USB adapter.
The Z80-MBC2 is about to be shipped and I look forward to receiving it.
#z80mbc2 #sbc #retrocomputing #CPM
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