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What's Happening? This information was posted September 26, 2008.
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Welcome to the Web version of the "Z-100 LifeLine"! I hope to use this page to bring newsworthy LifeLine items to your attention, so be sure to check this out periodically. Unless you've been receiving the LifeLine, you have probably been out of touch with the continuing changes in the Z-100 community. Some of these, I've mentioned elsewhere on this website, but not with much detail. My Web Site now has four main pages: The Home Page and is probably the first page that you have found. The LifeLine Page provides a great deal of information about the "Z-100 LifeLine". The Z-100 Page presents information about the Z-100 itself, its standard configuration, and the many upgrades that have been made since the Z-100 was discontinued by the manufacturer, Zenith Data Systems. And the Repair Page provides Z-100 disassembly procedures and serves as a launching off point to several articles addressing Z-100 repairs and modifications that may be of interest. These pages will probably remain relatively static. This page is where all the action will be. What's being worked on, who is doing the work, troubleshooting tips, and other noteworthy tid-bits. I hope to bring you the highlights of each issue of the LifeLine and, hopefully, encourage you to subscribe. We, the remaining proud owners of the Z-100, need your support. Please feel free to contact me if you have any specific comments or suggestions. Now, the news:
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The Z-100 LifeLine has moved!! Effective July 1, 2003, we moved from Elizabeth City to Hendersonville, North Carolina. Please make note of the new address and phone number.
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The Jan-Feb 2003 issue has a complete, comprehensive index to "Z-100 LifeLine" articles covering issues 1 through 84. An update was provided in issue #100. A greatly abbreviated version can be seen by clicking INDEX. Please keep in mind that copies of all back issues are available.
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The Jul-Aug 2003 issue has a complete, comprehensive index to "Sextant" articles covering issues 1 through 40, the last issue in March of 1989. While it contains a lot of H/Z-89 and PC material, the emphasis was placed on Z-100 material and articles of general interest. I'm sorry, but due to space limitations, very little material on the H-8 computer and other lesser known early hardware and software was included. I also left out robotics. A greatly abbreviated version can be seen by clicking INDEX. Please keep in mind that copies of all back issues are available.
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The new "Z-100 LifeLine" IDE Controller Board, ZROM v4.3, and Z-DOS v4.06 are shipping!!! The Z-100 LifeLine staff - John Beyers (software), Charles Hett (hardware), and I have been working very hard on the IDE Controller Board to enable use of IDE drives on the Z-100. The driving force behind this project was the need to replace the aging, and increasingly difficult to find, MFM hard drives for the Z-100. In addition, the board uses a 512Kb NVsRAM with Real Time Clock (RTC) to boot the computer, removing the need for boot code from the new hard drive, and has plenty of memory for speedy access to other programs. There are a few extra boards remaining. If you are interested, contact me NOW! More information can be found at IDE. And don't miss the article on the first operational IDE Controller in the Z-100 at Z100IDE. The new Z-DOS v4.06 operating system (now on CD-ROM) and MTR-ROM v4.3 are also available separately.
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John Beyers has completed his new DISKCOPY4 program. It works like a normal diskcopy program that you're familiar with, but will also copy an image of the disk to a file name. Any disk readable on the Z-100 can be used. This allows making disk images of bootable disks, including CP/M, that can be recreated later. The major purpose was to be able to make images of all the bootable disks in the Z-100 LifeLine Software Library and save them eventually to CD-ROM. Than, any time a new disk is needed, it can be created from the CD-ROM. An in-depth review of this new program was published in issue #100 of the "Z-100 LifeLine". This new program works with Z-DOS v4.xx only and requires a MTR-100 v4.x chip.
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HELP WANTED! I'm sorry to announce that our software guru, John Beyers, has left "Z-100 LifeLine" rather suddenly and very unexpectedly. With us since the Z-100's early beginnings and well before my time, he has nearly single-handedly written or modified all the source code for this latest Z-DOS version, the last several monitor ROMs, and the LLSCSI and LLIDE Controller projects. He will be sorely missed and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors... However, this has created a huge, very critical hole in our organization. If you have Z-80 or 8080 assembly code experience, have lots of free time on your hands, and would like to opportunity to work for free, we could sure use you. E-mail me below with any questions you may have.
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Copyright © 2008, Steven W. Vagts Revised -- September 26, 2008 |