Here are the software differences:

Interrupts are now strictly peripheral indexed, much like IM 2. Each peripheral has its own interrupt priority and vector. There is no "INT" pin any more. Each of the 32 GPIO pins can be programmed for an interrupt, or each of the built in peripheral devices can generate an interrupt as well. The interrupt vector tree determines where the interrupt is vectored to.

All undocumented Z80 commands (where they are different than the documented ones) still operate. The enhanced commands use different op-code prefixes.

It's timing behavior (instruction cycle) is very different and any software timing loops will complete considerably faster.

Those are the differences. Here are some more advantages:

You can have up to 256 virtual Z80 machines running in memory (this is theoretical, but an OS managing them would probably take up memory for one or two of them). You can also use instructions that can see all of the 16mb of memory without any sort of paging.

It's fast enough to handle ethernet packets via an ethernet interface (which their eval board has).

It has two UARTs built in for RS232 or anything else serial. These UARTS have 16 byte FIFO's for high reliability (I have tested them for speeds up to 230400 bps). There are two I2C ports, two UZI ports for interprocessor communications should you want more than one CPU. Four bit programmable parallel I/O ports. 6 programmable timers with auto-reload capability and zero value interrupt triggers. A watch-dog timer for crash sensitivity. Finally, a genuine hardware based 256x16 multiplay accumulator engine with 40 bit multiply accumulator. This simply means fast DSP ability.

I know it works because I have already converted a version of Andrew Owen's SE BASIC (debugged Spectrum OS) to work with it. Check out my web site:

http://members.cox.net/rjkelsch

Rich

The eZ80 is NOT a Z380. The Z380 is an older and out-dated 16 bit version of the Z80. The eZ80 is the newest from ZiLOG. The Z380 is being phased out.

Great!
Are you skilled to project a schematic of a Sprinter (or compatible!) pc with this cpu using altera chip?
Do you think that could be much difference with actual hardware of Sprinter and a new Sprinter model based on eZ80? in other words... I think that must modify some hardware architecture.... and could be present some incompatibility. Am I in wrong?

Because the eZ80 can act like a Z80, the design modification would not be difficult. In fact the system would gain a few more internal peripherals and timers. Heck, even though the system is capable of 16MB of memory that is directly accessible without bank selection, you would not have to use all of the address lines with the Sprinter bus. It can work just fine as a Z80 plug in replacement. The only system modification would have to be the interrupt structure. The rest should work just fine with only no or litttle modification.

If the desire was to use the full 16mb, then of course the system design would have to change to accomodate the extra memory map.

You can go to ZiLOG's web site to readh about the eZ80. It's actually easily feasable to make an advanced system and yet maintain old software compatibility.

Rich

"Did you ever feel everone else are tuxedos and you were just a pair of brown shoes?"

and a small board or upgrade the actual Sprinter ?

could be factible...

and a small board for upgrade the actual Sprinter ?

could be factible...

has a expansion port ?

or a socket in the z80 port an adapt it...

Well, can you lay out some specs and features of a new board? Could there be a 16 bit ISA or even PCI? Or at least 800 x 600 8bit graphics? Ethernet + TCP/IP? On top of existing Sprinter's features? And could taht actually be an affordable alternative to a Wintel PC, virus free, easy to program etc.?