New toys!

Ahhh, i see - how does making any of it make sense to you ?

It's not that different from learning a new programming language. The first time you see it, it looks terribly complicated and doesn't make much sense, but once you understand it, it's easy to see how everything fits together.

Makes sense :) - how do you configure everything to work ? - computer perhaps ?

It depends. The timer is completely hardwired (in other words there's no software involved), so there's no computer involved.

The Z80 system does require a computer, because it needs to be programmed before it will do anything. I write the programs on my PC, and send them to the Z80 over the parallel port.

Once it's programmed, it runs independently--It doesn't need to be connected to my PC to run.

what languaged is used ?
- computer language (i doubt)
- other...

Z80 assembly. Here's what it looks like (this is the program that it's running in the picture):

Code:

---

        org 0

        LD            SP, FFFFh        ; init stack to top of ram

        LD            A, B8H                ; program ppi
        OUT          (07H), A
        LD            A, 98H
        OUT        (03h), A
        OUT        (11h), A
        LD        B, 7Fh
        CALL        DELAY
        OUT        (11h), A

        LD        A, 01h                ; clear display       
        CALL        WRITEC
        LD        B,05h                ; delay count in milliseconds       
        CALL        DELAY
        LD        A, 0Ch                ; display on, cursor off
        CALL        WRITEC
        LD        B,01h                ; delay count in milliseconds
        CALL        DELAY
        LD      A,38H          ; Set system (8 bits, 2 lines, 5x7)
        CALL    WRITEC
        CALL        DELAY
        LD        A,7
        CALL        GOTO
        LD        HL,MSG1
        CALL        PRINT
        LD        A,23
        CALL        GOTO
        LD        HL,MSG2
        CALL        PRINT
        HALT

WRITEC: PUSH    AF
        OUT    (05h), A
        LD        A, 02h

WFIN:        OUT        (07h), A
        LD        A, 01h
        OUT        (07h), A
        LD        A, 00h
        OUT        (07h), A
        POP        AF
        RET

WRITED:        PUSH        AF
        OUT        (05h), A
        LD        A, 03h
        JR        WFIN

DELAY:        PUSH        DE
        PUSH        HL
        LD        DE,-1
LOOP1:        LD        HL,87
LOOP2:        ADD        HL,DE
        JR        C,LOOP2
        DJNZ        LOOP1
        POP        HL
        POP        DE
        RET

; print a string terminated with $. Address stored in HL

PRINT:        PUSH        AF
PRT_LP:        LD        A,(HL)
        CP        "$"
        JP        Z,DONE
        CALL        WRITED
        INC        HL
        JP        PRT_LP

DONE:        POP        AF
        RET       

; go to position stored in A. 0-19 = line 1, 20-39 = line 2

GOTO:        PUSH        AF
        SUB        A,20
        JP        M,LINE1
        ADD        A,44
LINE1:        ADD        A,20
        SET        7,A
        CALL        WRITEC
        POP        AF
        RET

MSG1        DB        "Blake's$"
MSG2        DB        "Conflabatorium$"

---

That's the program that it's running in the picture.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, how many different things can you do with that sort of code ? eg tih html you can create tables write on the page adjust other things...

Assembly is a very low level language. It's basically machine language written in a way that humans can understand (words instead of 0's and 1's). It's not related to web design.

I understand all of that :), what i meant was what different things can be done with that "language" (html scripting was just an example of what one language in itself could do...)

If a computer can do it, it can be done in assembly. The problem is that with complicated tasks, assembly code gets immensely complicated and completely unreadable. That's why we have higher level languages, like C++.