Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bu.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpcc05!col!hpldola!hp-lsd!egul
From: egul@hp-lsd.COS.HP.COM (Ed Gulczynski - FIS)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Re: Which microprocessor is user friendly ? (long reply)
Message-ID: <25150008@hp-lsd.COS.HP.COM>
Date: 4 Nov 90 04:05:55 GMT
References: <1990Oct24.234727.17533@NCoast.ORG>
Organization: HP Logic Systems Division - ColoSpgs, CO
Lines: 15

I recently completed a couple of Z80 projects (with help from some
very patient EE's).  I found tons of ref. matl'l in both the 
city and university libraries as well as our local well stocked bookstores.
Most of the material was either very low level or very 'over my head'
but did get me going. 

The big drawback of the Z80 is that it requires a family (usually 4-5 
minimum) of compatible supporting component chips to make anything functional 
and before long you're soldering and re-soldering 200+ pins and 6 months
have passed.    The chips are all very inexpensive though, ~$2.50-5.00 each.
     
     I'd recommend the 68HC11xxxxxxxx series with onboard ram, eeprom,
     and clock, the footprint is much smaller and you can concentrate
     on the software rather than which color wirewrap to buy next.
     The price is higher but the learning curve much faster.