Ampro Little Board Plus Z-80

The Ampro Logo, 1984, from my Ampro LB+ documentation binder.

Ampro's Compact CP/M Powerhouse.

Fits on top of a 5-1/4" disk drive and addresses up to 88MB of SCSI hard disk drive.



The original "Bookshelf Computer", the Ampro Little Board Z-80 is one of the simplest old computer system boards to get up and running.



The Buzz:

Top of an Ampro ad, showing the Little Board connecting to all sorts of technical doodads. Rules the world with a Little Board and a 5-1/4

What made us want this system so bad back in the day? See the advertising that turned us on to this slick little system!

My Ampro System:

See how I built up my Ampro Little Board System, and how I use it.

On the Spot Reports

Here are some blog posts I made about bringing up and using the LB+:

Software:

Once you've got an Ampro Little Board Plus system, what do you do with it? See ads and information on the software I'm using with it here.

The Future:

I'm not done with this system yet.

Among the work yet to be completed are:

  • Putting the Ampro in a smaller, nicer enclosure. (I have one picked out, stainless steel, shiiiney.)
  • A real time clock. I have a daughterboard made just for the Ampro that adds one. On a quiet afternoon, I'll install it and get the software checked out.
  • Blue sky: I have a PCB for a 1MB RAM expansion. It appears to mainly be intended for RAM disk, which I don't feel a strong need for at present. But I may add this later just as a matter of "tricking out" the system even more.

Resources:

Retrocomputing is a team sport.

Here are some Ampro-specific resources on the web:

Finally, I'd like to thank IQ Technologies (now the Smart Cable Company) for their wonderful serial SmartCable. It's worth its weight in gold. I bought it many years ago (about '84 or '85) after a particularly frustrating bout of trying to get a couple of pieces of equipment to talk. I felt like I was paying through the nose for it at the time but it has repaid me many times over, and continues to do so. You can still get one! Do so, and don't worry about the price. It's worth it!

(If they were cheaper I'd just use Smart Cables on everything, and forget about using regular serial cables!)