mirror of
https://github.com/davidgiven/fluxengine.git
synced 2025-10-31 11:17:01 -07:00
45 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
45 lines
1.6 KiB
Markdown
Disk: Zilog MCZ
|
|
===============
|
|
|
|
The Zilog MCZ is an extremely early Z80 development system, produced by
|
|
Zilog, which came out in 1976. It used twin 8-inch hard sectored floppy
|
|
drives; here's one at the <a
|
|
href="http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/12157/Zilog-Z-80-Microcomputer-System/">Centre
|
|
for Computing History</a>:
|
|
|
|
<div style="text-align: center">
|
|
<a href="http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/12157/Zilog-Z-80-Microcomputer-System/">
|
|
<img src="zilogmcz.jpg" style="max-width: 60%" alt="A Zilog MCZ at the Centre For Computing History"></a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
The MCZ ran Zilog's own operating system, Z80-RIO, and used 77 track
|
|
single-sided disks, with 32 sectors (each marked by an index hole), with 132
|
|
bytes per sector --- 128 bytes of user payload plus two two-byte metadata
|
|
words used to construct linked lists of sectors for storing files. These
|
|
stored 320kB each.
|
|
|
|
FluxEngine has experimental read support for these disks, based on a single
|
|
Catweasel flux file I've been able to obtain, which only contained 70 tracks.
|
|
I haven't been able to try this for real. If anyone has any of these disks,
|
|
an 8-inch drive, a FluxEngine and the appropriate adapter, please [get in
|
|
touch](https://github.com/davidgiven/fluxengine/issues/new)...
|
|
|
|
Reading discs
|
|
-------------
|
|
|
|
Just do:
|
|
|
|
```
|
|
fluxengine read zilogmcz
|
|
```
|
|
|
|
You should end up with an `zilogmcz.img` which is 315392 bytes long.
|
|
|
|
Useful references
|
|
-----------------
|
|
|
|
* [About the Zilog MCZ](http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/zilog.html),
|
|
containing lots of useful links
|
|
|
|
* [The hardware user's manual](https://amaus.org/static/S100/zilog/ZDS/Zilog%20ZDS%201-25%20Hardware%20Users%20Manual.pdf)
|
|
|