Classic computing fanatic Augusto Baffa has created a a Zilog Z80-based single-board laptop (SBC) for academic and nostalgic functions, and to show its capabilities has used the board to place collectively a 3D-printed all-in-one impressed by the rounded CRT terminals of previous: the Baffa-2+ Pc.
“[The] Baffa-2+ Pc is an SBC [Single-Board Computer] based mostly on [the] Baffa-2+ Homebrew Microcomputer,” Baffa explains. “Baffa-2 is an academic and private challenge with the purpose of understanding how computer systems work via 80’s 8-bit business machine designs. It has a modular idea with boards that may be mixed to develop your personal design and configuration.”
The place the unique Baffa-2 design is modular — placing a predominant board and any variety of peripheral boards on a backplane board for communication — the Baffa-2+ Pc shrinks issues down right into a single circuit board. At its coronary heart is a Zilog Z180, the successor to the favored eight-bit Z80, working at 18MHz, together with 512kB of RAM and 512kB of ROM. For storage there’s an SD card, for communication to exterior units serial-over-Wi-Fi connectivity, and there is even a Normal Instrument AY-3-8910 programmable sound generator (PSG) for audio.
There’s one little shortcut on the challenge, nonetheless: whereas many of the parts, bar the microSD card and Wi-Fi breakouts, are period-appropriate, eagle eyed viewers will discover a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller board, which is used to supply a terminal — although Baffa says a “minimal terminal” can be utilized with out the Raspberry Pi Pico.
Whereas the Baffa-2 used a modular design with backplane, the Baffa-2+ is a single-board laptop — practically. (📷: Augusto Baffa)
Whereas the SBC is usable stand-alone, Baffa has used it to place collectively an all-in-one, with keyboard and show, impressed by the rounded edges of Seventies and Nineteen Eighties video terminal techniques — borrowing LowBudgetTech’s present 3D-printable Callisto 2 mannequin and housing his personal parts inside.
Extra data is offered on Baffa’s Hackaday.io challenge web page.
