INMC 80 News

It is claimed that this assembler runs at 1000 lines per minute on a 2MHz system, which is quite fast (comparative figures being, for ZEAP on my N1 about 400 lines per minute, and ZEN about 1150 lines per minute). Unfortunately it takes up 9K of memory, compared with ZEAP’s 2.8K and ZEN’s 3.5K.

In the body of the book, Mr. Weller writes with great sense, and with some humour on his subject. Unfortunately, I find it difficult to read because of the necessity to translate from one mnemonic system to another, but he has some good ideas, and is definitely worth reading if you can manage to do so without the expense of buying the book. His monitor listing is interesting, as it (and the assembler) are fully commented, but it does not offer any sizeable advantages over the T2 bug (remember that one ?).

In my view, a book to be inspected before you purchase – and don’t fail for the bait of the free assembler – for the 20.00, you could buy a copy of ZEN from Newbear, and have enough left over to buy at least one good book on the Z80.

Z80 and 8080 Assembly Language Programming

By Kathe Spracklen
Published by Hayden Book Co
$7.95.

The name Spracklen is best known as that of the authors of Sargon the famous chess program for Z80 computers. This paperback book is written by Kathe Spracklen, and sets out to be an introduction to programming the Z80 in assembly language for absolute beginners. It is clearly written, showing the logical development of a program, with the emphasis on keeping proper documentation and notes. It would serve as an excellent introduction to machine language. Not only does it use the Z80 Zilog mnemonics, but it also illustrates every point in 8080 extended (TDL dialect). Those who wish to implement Sargon on their Nascom will find this most useful for assistance in translating the mnemonics from the TDL dialect in which Sargon is written to the Z80 mnemonics most of use are used to.

It has a number of exercises, and is fully provided with answers, so that you can check your work if you wish.

(Continued from page 59)