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Z-80 Plus

Applied Engineering Z-80 Plus

Applied Engineering, Inc. (1983)

Applied Engineering's version of the Microsoft Softcard was the Z-80 Plus, a coprocessor card that allowed the CP/M operating system to be run on an Apple II. The Z-80 Plus let the Apple II user tap into a large library of popular software that was only available for CP/M at the time such as Wordstar, Turbo Pascal, and dBase. Microsoft also sold several programming languages that ran under CP/M, including BASIC, COBOL, and FORTRAN.

This card was basically a clone of the Softcard, as were most other Z80 cards for the Apple II. Applied Engineering may have produced two versions of the card. The card pictured above, has a red LED at the back of the card, as seen in the early AE catalog. Later catalog entries show a version with a green LED at the front of the card.

Applied Engineering furnished a version of CP/M called CP/AM. The supplied sytem disk had a few more utilities on it than the disk that came with the Softcard, most notably RAMDRIVE, which allowed CP/AM to use a memory card in the Apple //e auxiliary slot as a solid state disk drive. Other extra utilities included NSWEEP, a file transfer program, and TED, a line editor that featured on-screen help.

 

Resources

 

Z-80 Plus Manual
Z-80 Plus Manual in Adobe PDF format. This manual covers the Z-80 Plus hardware and CP/AM 4.0B (File courtesy of www.apple-iigs.info.)

The following are DOS-ordered disk images of 5.25" Apple CP/M format diskettes. Use Asimov, DiskMaker, or a similar program to create bootable CP/AM disks.

Z-80 Plus System Disk
CP/AM 4.0B System Disk supplied with the Z-80 Plus. This version will run in a 48K Apple II and only supports 5-1/4" disks.

CP/AM 5.1 System Disk
CP/AM 5.1 System Disk. This updated version of Applied Engineering's CP/M requires 64 MB of memory and supports 3.5" disks and Sider hard drives.

CP/AM 5.1 Utility Disk
CP/AM 5.1 Utility Disk . This disk contains the utilities for installing CP/AM 5.1 on a Sider hard drive.

CP/AM 5.1 Manual
CP/AM 5.1 Manual in Adobe PDF format. (File courtesy of www.apple-iigs.info.)

Thanks to Wayne Stewart for the following Applied Engineering catalog pages:

Z-80 Plus Page from Early AE Catalog
Z-80 Plus catalog page from an early AE catalog. (circa 1983?)

Z-80 Plus Page from 1986 AE Catalog
Z-80 Plus catalog entry from the Summer/Fall 1986 AE catalog.

Z-80 Plus Page from 1990 AE Catalog
Z-80 Plus catalog entry from the 1990 AE Catalog.

Download Apple CP/M programs from Call A.P.P.L.E.'s Apple II CP/M Library.

There are several images of Apple CP/M disks in the unsorted directory of the Asimov FTP site. Look for CPM in the filenames.

More Apple CP/M information is on John Baker's "Everything you wanted to know about Apple CP/M but were afraid to ask" pages.

Paul Schlyter has Apple II CP/M and General CP/M references, as well as links to other CP/M resources on his Apple II Stuff page.

© 2005 Dave Touvell.
All Rights Reserved.
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