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I used the CONV-86 8080 to 8086 converter tool mentioned in the article on a project back in 1983. It really worked quite well, with hardly any fixup required o

by drmpeg 6y ago

I used the CONV-86 8080 to 8086 converter tool mentioned in the article on a project back in 1983. It really worked quite well, with hardly any fixup required on a fairly large (at that time) code base. I remember thinking that the 8088 (in the IBM PC) was a speed demon compared to the 8080 (in the CP/M system I was converting from).

billforsternz 6y ago
I tried to track down that converter for a retro computing project about 10 years ago and failed; https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2038929/where-can-i-find-a-8080-to-x86-assembler-conversion-tool https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2038929/where-can-i-find... A few months ago I returned to the project and completed it this time; https://github.com/billforsternz/retro-sargon https://github.com/billforsternz/retro-sargon As I should have realised the first time, you can write your own converter in an afternoon or two :-)
- drmpeg 6y ago
  CONV-86 came on 8" floppy disk for the ISIS-II operating system on Intel MDS development boxes. Even if you found a copy, you'd need an MDS-80 to run it on. After the IBM PC came out, everyone tossed their MDS-80 systems when Intel started to provide their tools on MS-DOS. With the current interest in retro computing, I wish I had saved more stuff from back then. I kick myself for not saving an Intel i960CA evaluation board that I used in 1992. I loved the i960 architecture and developed quite a few products with it. However, I still have the processor from that board because I replaced it with an i960CF. http://www.w6rz.net/IMG_0035.JPG http://www.w6rz.net/IMG_0035.JPG
  - billforsternz 6y ago
    The funny thing is, back in the day I wrote a 8080 emulator that could run CP/M programs on MS-DOS, and then I went the extra mile and adapted it to run ISIS-II programs for the Intel blue boxes we had. There were some 8051 Dev tools I thought were worth bringing over. But that would have been in the 80s, and the 8 inch drives went to the landfill decades ago. So yeah.
    - rwmj 6y ago
      Of course if you had a NEC V20/V30 (pin-compatible 8086 clone), it had a special mode for running 8080 code! It couldn't run Z80 code because it lacked the extensions like LDIR.
      - billforsternz 6y ago
        If you read the GitHub page I linked to earlier you'll see I digress as far as a discussion of the NEC V20 :)
- the_af 6y ago
  I love retrocomputing. Nice project. I'm toying with the idea of writing something in C64 assembly (something I never did learn back when I was a kid and owned one). I'm delighted to see there's an active scene of C64 fans coding new games for it even today. Real life will interfere, of course, but a man can dream...
  - codezero 6y ago
    Funny, I got on a C64 kick recently as well, but it ended up bringing me down a weird rabbit hole to CollapseOS, and now Forth, so I am thinking maybe I'll write a Forth for C64 in assembly for fun. I won't bother googling it, but I assume Csixtyforth is already taken.

by drmpeg 6y ago

billforsternz 6y ago

I tried to track down that converter for a retro computing project about 10 years ago and failed; https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2038929/where-can-i-find-a-8080-to-x86-assembler-conversion-tool https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2038929/where-can-i-find... A few months ago I returned to the project and completed it this time; https://github.com/billforsternz/retro-sargon https://github.com/billforsternz/retro-sargon As I should have realised the first time, you can write your own converter in an afternoon or two :-)

drmpeg 6y ago
CONV-86 came on 8" floppy disk for the ISIS-II operating system on Intel MDS development boxes. Even if you found a copy, you'd need an MDS-80 to run it on. After the IBM PC came out, everyone tossed their MDS-80 systems when Intel started to provide their tools on MS-DOS. With the current interest in retro computing, I wish I had saved more stuff from back then. I kick myself for not saving an Intel i960CA evaluation board that I used in 1992. I loved the i960 architecture and developed quite a few products with it. However, I still have the processor from that board because I replaced it with an i960CF. http://www.w6rz.net/IMG_0035.JPG http://www.w6rz.net/IMG_0035.JPG
- billforsternz 6y ago
  The funny thing is, back in the day I wrote a 8080 emulator that could run CP/M programs on MS-DOS, and then I went the extra mile and adapted it to run ISIS-II programs for the Intel blue boxes we had. There were some 8051 Dev tools I thought were worth bringing over. But that would have been in the 80s, and the 8 inch drives went to the landfill decades ago. So yeah.
  - rwmj 6y ago
    Of course if you had a NEC V20/V30 (pin-compatible 8086 clone), it had a special mode for running 8080 code! It couldn't run Z80 code because it lacked the extensions like LDIR.
    - billforsternz 6y ago
      If you read the GitHub page I linked to earlier you'll see I digress as far as a discussion of the NEC V20 :)
the_af 6y ago
I love retrocomputing. Nice project. I'm toying with the idea of writing something in C64 assembly (something I never did learn back when I was a kid and owned one). I'm delighted to see there's an active scene of C64 fans coding new games for it even today. Real life will interfere, of course, but a man can dream...
- codezero 6y ago
  Funny, I got on a C64 kick recently as well, but it ended up bringing me down a weird rabbit hole to CollapseOS, and now Forth, so I am thinking maybe I'll write a Forth for C64 in assembly for fun. I won't bother googling it, but I assume Csixtyforth is already taken.