Laptop like 1975

When we first saw the PZ1 laptop, a 6502 laptop-like computer with a small screen and 512KB of RAM, we couldn't help but think of the old AIM laptop 65 from Rockwell, even though it only had 1 KB of memory. The other thing the AIM didn't have was a much more powerful auxiliary microcontroller than the main processor.

There are actually several versions of the PZ1 and you can find very detailed information on Hackaday.io and GitHub. Recently [Adam] released version 2.0 and tested some PC cards which work well.

Of course you need software. [Adam] carried Fusix on which is good. One wonders what designer Rockwell would have thought of such an extravagance of memory, an SD card and a bigger screen. They would probably complain that there was no thermal printer.

Many support functions use a Teensy and an Arduino Nano. There's also a Raspberry Pi Pico in the mix. This opens up many possibilities for future screen upgrades. Maybe an ESP32 could even put it on WiFi.

For us, when we want to play with the code 6502, we catch a Kim-UNO, even if it is emulated. We've seen a lot of 6502 activity lately. Not bad for a CPU approaching 50 years old.

Laptop like 1975

When we first saw the PZ1 laptop, a 6502 laptop-like computer with a small screen and 512KB of RAM, we couldn't help but think of the old AIM laptop 65 from Rockwell, even though it only had 1 KB of memory. The other thing the AIM didn't have was a much more powerful auxiliary microcontroller than the main processor.

There are actually several versions of the PZ1 and you can find very detailed information on Hackaday.io and GitHub. Recently [Adam] released version 2.0 and tested some PC cards which work well.

Of course you need software. [Adam] carried Fusix on which is good. One wonders what designer Rockwell would have thought of such an extravagance of memory, an SD card and a bigger screen. They would probably complain that there was no thermal printer.

Many support functions use a Teensy and an Arduino Nano. There's also a Raspberry Pi Pico in the mix. This opens up many possibilities for future screen upgrades. Maybe an ESP32 could even put it on WiFi.

For us, when we want to play with the code 6502, we catch a Kim-UNO, even if it is emulated. We've seen a lot of 6502 activity lately. Not bad for a CPU approaching 50 years old.

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