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<\/a><\/div>\nLike a lot of people who were at school during the 1970\/80 period, the first microcomputer I used was an RML380Z. It wasn’t the first computer I ever used, that was a DEC System 20 (IIRC), but this shiny black box was the first machine that I could sit at and get its full attention.<\/p>\n
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I have been wanting to get a 380Z for a number of years but the silly prices on ebay have made that impossible until now. A chance meeting with a fellow computer collector led to me getting the example you see in the photo.<\/p>\n
As you can see, it’s not in the prime of life, it’s covered in stickers and there is no keyboard. When it’s powered on I get a screen full of rubbish but it’s mine and I’m delighted.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n The case is a 19\u201d type made from pressed steel and aluminium. It has a handle on each side. The front is dominated by the two full height floppy disk drives (8\u201d drives were available IIRC), the Logo and the power switch\/reset button combination.<\/p>\n It was possible to lock the machine off, on or locked. Off and on are self-explanitory and \u201cLock\u201d disabled the reset button. Perhaps thought useful for public installations.<\/p>\n At the back there is a host of connections.<\/p>\n Keyboard<\/strong>. This uses a 15 way D-type socket. The keyboard uses a parallel interface down which the ASCII encoded characters are sent. There is a micro-controller on the keyboard PCB that looks after scanning and translating the key-presses.<\/span><\/p>\n Cassette<\/strong>. This uses the DIN socket typical of the time.<\/span><\/p>\n TV.<\/strong> The usual TV antenna socket. My unit doesn’t have a modulator and so this doesn’t work.<\/span><\/p>\n Monitor.<\/strong> A composite video output. Rather unusually the 380Z uses a SO259 socket much used on amateur radio equipment. This is a high quality connector and is still an expensive item. I don’t know of any other manufacturer of micros using this.<\/span><\/p>\n Serial port.<\/strong> A standard issue RS-232 port.<\/span><\/p>\n Another D25.<\/strong> I’m not sure about this one. When time permits I’ll go in and have another look.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are plenty of other cut-outs covered by blanking plates so expansion was not a problem.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The photo above shows my machine with the lid off. The back of the machine is at the bottom of the photo, the front at the top.<\/span><\/p>\n As you can see, there is plenty going on.<\/span><\/p>\n To the left you can see the power supply. Unlike later machines, this is not a self contained, switch-mode unit. Instead it is a linear supply made from a collection of components fixed to the nearest piece of case or folded aluminium. Working on it is quite tricky as a fair amount of the machine needs to be taken apart to get the the components. It’s not something that you can take out and hold in your hand.<\/span><\/p>\n Like the PSU this term is a bit of a misnomer as the cards stand between pairs of guide rails individually screwed to the bottom of the case. There is plenty of room here. As you can see, I have five cards and there is room for four more.<\/span><\/p>\n On the far right of the case is a pair of 5.25\u201d floppy disk drives. I havent taken these out to check the model numbers but early machines had DSSD drives giving about 84kb per side. Unusually, each side was addressed independently and so A: and B: were different sides of the same drive.<\/span><\/p>\n I you can see, I have five cards in my machine.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Like a lot of people who were at school during the 1970\/80 period, the first microcomputer I used was an RML380Z. It wasn’t the first computer I ever used, that was a DEC System 20 (IIRC), but this shiny black box was the first machine that I could sit at and get its full … Continue reading RML380Z<\/span> <\/a><\/p>\nExterior<\/h1>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nInside the case.<\/h1>\n
Power Supply.<\/span><\/h2>\n
Card cage.<\/span><\/h2>\n
Floppy disk drives.<\/span><\/h2>\n
The cards.<\/span><\/h2>\n
VDU80<\/span>.<\/h3>\n
<\/a>Next to the power supply is the video card. This supports 80 columns and gives composite video out. I noted the high quality connector on the back of the case. There is just a pair of twisted wires running from the connector on the card to the SO-259 on the case. Not the highest quality solution.<\/span><\/p>\nCPU.
\n<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/a>The CPU card contains the Z80 processor so typical of business machines of the age. It has 32kb RAM in 4116 DRAM chips (the Z80 looks after refresh) and three TMS-2716 2kb EPROMs. It’s unfortunate that they used the TMS 2716 EPROM as these are very hard to get hold of now and tricky to read as they require several power supplies. The \u201cordinary\u201d 2716s only need 5v and so became far more popular. <\/span><\/p>\n32kb RAM card.
\n<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/a>Another collection of 4116s gives another 32kb RAM, maxing out the Z80’s address space.<\/span><\/p>\nFloppy disk controller.
\n<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/a>This really needs a better photo \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\nBus terminator card.
\n<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/a>Just a collection of resistors and test points really.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"