Here’s an interesting project I came across last week through a contact on LinkedIn – a C Compiler for the Z80 processor. The Z88 DK project was originally conceived for the Cambridge Z88, but now supports a variety of Z80 based platforms including the ZX Spectrum. There are the generic libraries you’d expect from a C compiler including stlib, maths, malloc and string, as well as support for sprites, sound, interrupts and 3D rotation. In …
I’m a keen cyclist and, with a few friends, have racked up a fair few miles over the years cycling for pleasure, commuting and charity. Last year, for example, we cycled the C2C (Sea to Sea) cycle route from Whitehaven to Sunderland for a local charity over a couple of days. My bike is equipped for commuting & longer tours; nice panniers, bright lights, comfy seat and cycle computer. The cycle computer is the weakest …
Bare metal programming is the art of writing code for a microcomputer that runs directly on the hardware (metal) bypassing the need for an operating system. This method of programming was common practice back in the early days of software development and was prevalent amongst games developers. The practice probably died out after the advent of Microsoft’s DirectX API. Up until that point the only games you’d get in Windows 3.1 were simple affairs, such …