Micro-Professor MPF-1P

Z80 practice board – Z80 @ 3.8MHz, 4kB RAM, 20 character VFD display

My brother saved this computer from the bin at work. It’s a small “practice board” for learning Z80 assembler. Not terribly useful to me as far as learning assembler goes but it is an interesting addition to the collection.

This computer was made by a company called Multitech Industrial Corporation, in 1987 they changed their name to Acer. After some digging around on the Internet I managed to dig up a copy of the instruction manual. Even after flicking through it for 30 minutes it’s tricky to use, it has multiple modes and the 20 character display is very cramped.

The manual also mentions a bunch of accessories that I don’t have (a printer, an EEPROM programmer and an I/O board). Another key part of this computer I am missing is the plastic shell that keeps it all together. When folded away in this vacuum formed case it looked like a thick book. This “book” held the main board, one add-on board and the instruction manual. I made my own box out of MDF to keep the board safe, much better than the cardboard shoebox it was found in.