Z88 Technical Details and Trivia

Connectors

  • three sockets for solid-state cartridges (for increased storage, programs, etc)
  • an expansion slot - 20-pin double-sided edge connector
  • RS232 serial port - 9-pin D-type
  • a power supply socket - 9V DC @ 1A

Technical Facts

  • The 'Series 4' board came with 32K of RAM as standard, but could support a "physical" memory upgrade of up to 1 Mb. That said, OZ version 3 (the last operating system fitted into production machines), readily recognises 128K but not 512K, for which you need an OZ version 4 ROM, plus modification to the main board.
  • The LCD display is made by Epson.

 

Hover your mouse over the circuit board for a description of the components

 

Note: This is an Issue 4 board. Issue 3 boards have some components manually soldered on instead of being part of the standard artwork.

Circuit board image courtesy of Dr Colin F Parsons, May 2002 (www.colinfparsons.btinternet.co.uk)

 

Trivia

  • The built-in word processor, Pipedream, was written by Mark Colton, the author of View for the Acorn BBC. Pipedream is almost identical to Acornsoft's View Professional.

 

   
Z80A Microprocessor (CPU)">