Hi all ! It’s time to give an update.
I received the new pcb from PCBWAY several months ago. I’ve been busy with getting all new features to work, and the hardware works without a problem.
On my Hackaday page I announced there will be a KIT. You simple buy a pcb from me, for 30 Euro, and I give you the list of parts (parts will only be around 65 Euro) that you can buy at a distributor. The pcb is already available now (since I always get more than 1 pcb when I order a prototype).
A description of “which parts go where” is also available.
I also plan to make a nice document with building instructions.
Description of several software things that I did is found in the logging on my Hackaday page.
At the moment, work is going on to put a very nice operating system on Isetta. It is a pre-emptive multitasking operating system with GUI. It can be operated with a mouse:
SymbOs is available for seven different Z80 platforms. There are more than 70 applications, and the newest SymbOs 4.0 even has a spreadsheet ! For making your own programs, there is a development system similar to visual-basic (called Quigs), a C compiler, and you can program in Z80 assembler.
On Youtube there are many demonstration videos. You can also try it yourself, with this online simulation of an MSX Z80 computer:
(In the demo, you see two mouse pointers. Click the middle mouse button to have only the SymbOs mouse, click again to have your PC mouse back).
To me, this looks like the most complex Z80 program ever made. I will have to overcome several obstacles before this is working on Isetta.
Happy Hacking !