eZ80 ozRaptor Baseplane

Description

An eZ80 powered base-plane with support for up to 4MB of zero wait state linear RAM and three RCBus/RC2014™ expansion slots.

General Description

The ozRaptor is a combination of the eZ80 for RC and a powered RCBus/RC2014™ backplane. The 4 layer PCB with the specially designed memory interface allows for higher speed operation.

The eZ80 Zilog CPU is an updated version of Z80 CPU. It comes in a few variations with many on chip facilities in addition to the basic CPU, such as flash ROM, RAM, GPIO and other IO services.

Key features

• Compatibility with many existing RCBus and RC2014™ retro modules.
• A fun DIY kit that can be assembled by anyone with basic soldering skills.
• Compatible RCBus/RC2014 banked memory modules running RomWBW/HBIOS
• With the optional USB for RC module installed, can be booted directly into CP/M
• With the optional HDMI for RC module installed, can drive a HDMI terminal console
• Lots of potential to do your own hacking and tinkering with the eZ80.

Key features compared with the eZ80 for RC

This kit offers a number of features compared to the eZ80 for RC module:

• High speed 0 wait/state linear RAM slots.
• Access to both the eZ80’s 2 on chip uarts.
• Easier breakout for both SPI and I2C interfaces.
• Proper 6 pin IDC connector for programmer connection.
• 8 on board LEDS, 1 power & 7 programmable.

What is the eZ80 CPU

The eZ80 CPU is an enhanced version of the original Z80, largely maintaining compatibility with its predecessor while offering significant improvements. It can directly address up to 16MB of memory and achieves far greater performance per clock cycle due to increased instruction efficiency and pipelining. Additionally, it integrates various on-chip peripherals such as timers, UART, SPI, I2C, and GPIOs, reducing the need for external hardware components.

While the eZ80 might appear slow and limited by today’s standards, it represents, I think, an interesting evolution from the original 1970s Z80 to the modern day embedded microcontrollers.

See the Wikipedia page for basic overview of the CPU (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zilog_eZ80)

Zilog’s eZ80 CPU is supplied in a small surfaced mounted integrated circuit. This IC is supplied soldered on a small PCB with its various pins (~100) traced to breakout PCB pins.  More details of this module can be found here.

What is the Green Series of Retro Kits

The Green Series of kits are designed around the RCBus/RC2014 bus, powered by an eZ80 CPU (as apposed to the Z80 CPU), and are broadly compatible with many RC2014 and RCBus kits and CP/M and RomWBW software stacks.

For more information of the eZ80 CPU, see the Green Series overview.

What’s included in this kit

The full kits includes the optional eZ80 CPU Module, PCB, capacitors, IC sockets, connectors, and the various ICs. The included Programmable Logic Device (PLD) will also be flashed with the required logic.

The eZ80 CPU module will come with all the surface mounted components soldered. You just need to solder the PCB pins.

A 20Mhz and an optional 25Mhz crystal to allow you to ‘overclock’ your eZ80.

The optional high speed memory expansion modules are not included – they are sold separately.

RCBus/RC2014™ expansion modules sold separately.

What else do I need to make this work?

• A means to flash an image onto the eZ80’s internal ROM.
• As per other serial RC2014™ modules, you will need a means to connect the eZ80’s UART to a terminal emulator. The typical FTDI USB converters connected to your PC over USB should suffice.

See the Product Guide page for more details.