Hello all, just received my contest kit for the Zilog eZ80Aclaim.

Very cool, it comes with a module with Ethernet and iRDA on it, along with a
serial cable for programming.

Of course, what's the first thing a person like me does when they receive
something like this? They open it up to see what's inside! :)

Very interesting, the "serial cable" is actually very complicated for the
task it's meant for. It's got 128kB of SRAM, a Zilog microcontroller and an
Altera CPLD (along with a oscillator and a Maxim rs232 level shifter).  I
guess they need the CPLD for the same reason I needed one on my logan
project: not enough I/O on the microcontroller. But why a programmer cable
needs 128KB of SRAM is beyond me! :) I guess there's a good reason.

Oh, and the microcontroller says "eng sample" on it and there's a hand fix
of a small amount of wire connecting the CPLD to I/O6 of the SRAM, guess the
board has a bad trace?

Anyways, very neat kit, can't wait to put it in action. TTYL

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Herbert's PIC Stuff:
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