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Re: What is this apparatus ?

Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2016 3:21 pm
by haklesup
My best guess: Looks like a combo Emulator / development breadboard. Possibly for Z80 which was popular uController in that time period using that package footprint. You could load your firmware in the base unit with supporting memory and drive your circuit through the emulator cable until you were ready to burn it onto the chip (or maybe to EPROM, I forget the architecture exactly)

I used one once briefly but it had several LED displays and mainly you would input hex codes and check to see the right hex read back if I recall (must have been 1986) . With a serial interface and 89 date code, it must have worked with a 286 or maybe 386 PCs but maybe Unix/VAX. I'm sure is unobtanium by now since it predates the internet for the most part. It is a useful looking case though.

Maybe you can find it here
http://www.z80.info/z80emu.htm