 Trade In this Item for up to £12.60
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The ZX Spectrum ULA: How to Design a Microcomputer for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £12.60, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
This book takes the reader through the design and implementation of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum's custom chip, revealing for the first time the decisions behind its design and its hidden secrets. By using it as case study, the techniques required to design an 8-bit microcomputer are explained, along with comprehensive details of the Ferranti ULA manufacturing process. If you have ever wanted to design your own computer or wondered what was behind the most successful microcomputer of the 1980s, then this is the book for you. For the first time, the inner working of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum's custom chip and heart of the computer, the Ferranti ULA, is exposed in minute detail. Packed with over 140 illustrations and circuit diagrams, this book takes the reader through the cutting edge technology that was the Ferranti ULA and the design of the ZX Spectrum home computer, illustrating the principles and techniques involved in creating a cost effective computer that required nothing more than a television set and a cassette recorder. The ZX Spectrum ULA is an essential read for the electronics hobbyist, student or electronic engineer wishing to design their own retro-style microcomputer or anyone with an interest in historical micro-electronic and digital design. All topics are explained in simple yet precise terms, building on their careful introduction towards the full functionality presented by the Sinclair computer. Some of the topics covered are: The architecture of the standard microcomputer, Ferranti and their ULA, manufacturing process and structure, The functional layout of the ZX Spectrum ULA, Video display generation, Memory contention and timing, ZX Spectrum design bugs such as "The Snow Effect", Hidden features, ULA version differences.
From the Back Cover
If you have ever wanted to design your own computer or wondered what was behind the most successful microcomputer of the 1980s, then this is the book for you.
For the first time, the inner working of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum's custom chip and heart of the computer, the Ferranti ULA, is exposed in minute detail.
Packed with over 140 illustrations and circuit diagrams, this book takes the reader through the cutting edge technology that was the Ferranti ULA and the design of the ZX Spectrum home computer, illustrating the principles and techniques involved in creating a cost effective computer that required nothing more than a television set and a cassette recorder.
The ZX Spectrum ULA is an essential read for the electronics hobbyist, student or electronic engineer wishing to design their own retro-style microcomputer or anyone with an interest in historical micro-electronic and digital design.
All topics are explained in simple yet precise terms, building on their careful introduction towards the full functionality presented by the Sinclair computer.
Some of the topics covered are:
The architecture of the standard microcomputer,
Ferranti and their ULA, manufacturing process and structure,
The functional layout of the ZX Spectrum ULA,
Video display generation,
Memory contention and timing,
ZX Spectrum design bugs such as "The Snow Effect",
Hidden features,
ULA version differences.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is simply amazing, from begin to end you can see that great care been put in creating it.
The amount of information you'll find in about the ZX ULA, its history, how it works, how it's been made, I really don't think you'll ever find more than what is present here, the author certainly done all is best to find all the best information and present it as clearly as possible.
This is definitely *THE* book if you wish to understand the ZX ULA, I like the way every chapter explains in very high detail every single aspect of it, this book really has so much information it could be called "Everything you wanted to know about the ZX ULA and even more".
This book literally kept me hooked to it for weeks ( I am not a super fast reader ) with a lot of "Aha !" "Ooh !" "Ah that's why !" moments.
What also will make you love this book even more is the fact that when you'll know so well in detail what the ZX ULA really is really "not very much", compared to today's FPGAs/CPLDs/etc. , you will feel the genius of the people that worked on it and that managed to really do "so much with so few".
It's almost incredible how they managed from such a chip to make it perform all the functions they needed for the ZX Spectrum and this book lets you know how.
Finally it's really very well done in all the aspects, the typesetting and composition is really good, this is definitely "a very readeable book".
I would finish to add that even if you really are not into the ZX ULA it should not matter, anyone into electronics that wished to know how things work should have a copy of this book for "reference" and study it because it will give you lot of ideas.
Said that this book is also very much tempting me to get a bunch of transistors and see if the ULA could be really rebuilt form scratch piece by piece.
I highly reccomend this book, it really is a kind of book you won't find many like this one.
The amount of information you'll find in about the ZX ULA, its history, how it works, how it's been made, I really don't think you'll ever find more than what is present here, the author certainly done all is best to find all the best information and present it as clearly as possible.
This is definitely *THE* book if you wish to understand the ZX ULA, I like the way every chapter explains in very high detail every single aspect of it, this book really has so much information it could be called "Everything you wanted to know about the ZX ULA and even more".
This book literally kept me hooked to it for weeks ( I am not a super fast reader ) with a lot of "Aha !" "Ooh !" "Ah that's why !" moments.
What also will make you love this book even more is the fact that when you'll know so well in detail what the ZX ULA really is really "not very much", compared to today's FPGAs/CPLDs/etc. , you will feel the genius of the people that worked on it and that managed to really do "so much with so few".
It's almost incredible how they managed from such a chip to make it perform all the functions they needed for the ZX Spectrum and this book lets you know how.
Finally it's really very well done in all the aspects, the typesetting and composition is really good, this is definitely "a very readeable book".
I would finish to add that even if you really are not into the ZX ULA it should not matter, anyone into electronics that wished to know how things work should have a copy of this book for "reference" and study it because it will give you lot of ideas.
Said that this book is also very much tempting me to get a bunch of transistors and see if the ULA could be really rebuilt form scratch piece by piece.
I highly reccomend this book, it really is a kind of book you won't find many like this one.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'm about as far as you could get from being a hardware guy, but I've thoroughly enjoyed the read.
I love the exceptional detail in background story and anecdotes on the speccy design process.
This book explains things that I always assumed were just random design decisions, like blue being colour 1.
This book is the definitive reference for the 'soul' of the speccy, I've never seen anything like it, and we probably never will again.
Absolutely Brilliant.
I love the exceptional detail in background story and anecdotes on the speccy design process.
This book explains things that I always assumed were just random design decisions, like blue being colour 1.
This book is the definitive reference for the 'soul' of the speccy, I've never seen anything like it, and we probably never will again.
Absolutely Brilliant.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first found the zxdesign.info website while looking up information about creating my own computer system from TL logic gates. When I saw Chris was writing a book to detail the inner workings of the Spectrum ULA I signed up for a copy straight away. Im glad to say I wasnt disappointed with the book. It is very well written and contains alot of information, including the history of chip design and ULA's. It goes into great depth about how the designers of the spectrum overcame various issues as well as managed to fit the entire design onto the ULA.
This is a great read for people interested in a wide range of aspects of ula design, spectrum inner workings and computers in general.
This is a great read for people interested in a wide range of aspects of ula design, spectrum inner workings and computers in general.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
The ZX Spectrum ULA: How to Design a Microcomputer
I bought this book as a present for my son who is a computer programmer and had one of these computers when he was much younger. Read more
Published 5 months ago by bpullin
Abolutly mandatory book for any Sinclair ZX enthusiast
This is not only one of the best books I have read about the ZX Spectrum from the technical side, but it is one of the most interesting books on how a microcomputer was built in... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Inaki
Magic explained!
If you ever wished to know the magic behind the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, you have the Holy Grail at hand. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Cesare Falco
Superb !
An absolute must for anyone interested in retro computers and FPGAs. A very well researched and well written book and interesting on many levels.
Published 21 months ago by chrislogic
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
