My first computer was the ZX80 in 1980!
Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 1:55 am
Hello everyone!
OK, I've got the Sinclair bug again. Just a quick intro: I'm currently an electrical engineer doing mixed signal verification on data converter ASICs (RF ->digtial & digital -> RF) . Working backwards, Intel Itanium microprocessor hardware design, ASIC design for HP/Agilent, system design for the collision detector at Fermilab, formal education at University of Illinois, airborne electronic countermeasures technician for the US Navy, basement tinkering on ZX81 and ZX80.
I really regret tossing my 30 pound box of Sinclair stuff ten years ago or so during one of my moves! ...but it was collecting dust for way too long and it just didn't seem worth moving once again. Besides I was a dirt biking guy (motorcycles) then, and had enough of that stuff to move.
But now I buying up old ZX81/TS1000's, working or not, and am looking into getting a machine running again, with the appropriate bells and whistles. ...and now with some potentially interesting improvements.
On my list:
- verilog model of the ZX81
- switchable ROM
- ULA replacement, maybe implemented in programmable logic, maybe an ASIC in On Semiconductor's C5 process
- dedicated display circuit
- CF storage
OK, pretty ambitious, but something to fill the spare time......
OK, I've got the Sinclair bug again. Just a quick intro: I'm currently an electrical engineer doing mixed signal verification on data converter ASICs (RF ->digtial & digital -> RF) . Working backwards, Intel Itanium microprocessor hardware design, ASIC design for HP/Agilent, system design for the collision detector at Fermilab, formal education at University of Illinois, airborne electronic countermeasures technician for the US Navy, basement tinkering on ZX81 and ZX80.
I really regret tossing my 30 pound box of Sinclair stuff ten years ago or so during one of my moves! ...but it was collecting dust for way too long and it just didn't seem worth moving once again. Besides I was a dirt biking guy (motorcycles) then, and had enough of that stuff to move.
But now I buying up old ZX81/TS1000's, working or not, and am looking into getting a machine running again, with the appropriate bells and whistles. ...and now with some potentially interesting improvements.
On my list:
- verilog model of the ZX81
- switchable ROM
- ULA replacement, maybe implemented in programmable logic, maybe an ASIC in On Semiconductor's C5 process
- dedicated display circuit
- CF storage
OK, pretty ambitious, but something to fill the spare time......