The N8VEM Home Brew Computer Project

The N8VEM Single Board Computer (SBC) is a home brew Z80 small computer project. It is made in the style of vintage computers of the mid to late 1970's and early 1980's using a mix of classic and modern technologies.  There are great instructions on how to build the N8VEM SBC for complete beginners here (PDF and DOC).

Its purpose is to entertain through education.  It is intended to be used to teach and promote principles of electronic computer design.  It is a solely non-profit educational project and is not intended for any commercial application.  The N8VEM SBC and related peripherals would be ideal as a school project or could be used to teach basic computer hardware and software principles.

The web site is a repository of information, documentation, and files pertaining to the N8VEM Home Brew Computer Project.  It is intended to be the canonical place for this information.

There is a registry of different firmware versions for these computers where you can look up various images, what they support, and where to find them. Additional information is provided. Registry

Low cost development and assembly by hobbyist amateurs is encouraged by using common tools such as 25 watt soldering iron, VOM, logic probe (optional), and common hand tools.  An oscilloscope is recommended but not required.  Some basic electronic skills are good but the Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are designed for relative beginners.

For more details, see the Design Overview page.  There is a discussion forum also, see the N8VEM Google Group also known as the N8VEM mailing list.  If you need to reach someone please send me an email at LYNCHAJ@YAHOO.COM

There are twenty Eurocard (160 x 100 mm) PCBs available;

1. N8VEM SBC V2
2. ECB backplane
3. ECB extended backplane
4. ECB bus monitor
5. ECB prototyping board (with IO decode)
6. Disk IO board
7. Zilog Peripherals board
8. Video Display Board (VDU)
9. PropIO
10. SCG
11. SBC-188 V1
12. 4MEM (SBC-188 4 MB SRAM expansion)
13. ECB RAM-Floppy
14. ECB 4PIO
15. ECB Cassette Interface
16. ECB uPD7220 graphics board
17. ECB Prototyper (C'T Projekt)
18. ECB bus extender
19. DSKY
20. ECB PIC Multifunction

The three 6809 standalone computer boards available in the Eurocard (160 x 100 mm) format; the 6809/6802/6502 host processor, its 6809/6802/6502 IO mezzanine, and the 6809/6802/6502 bus bridge.  A redesign of the 6809 host processor board has been completed and the new version supports 6502 and 6802 CPUs in addition to the 6809. 

All Eurocard ECB format PCBs are $20 plus shipping which is $2 per board in the US and typically $5 per board overseas.

N8VEM builders are working on several projects.  Here are some underway at the moment; SCSI to IDE bridge and ECB Dual DMA IDE. These boards are not commonly available and are in various states of development, build, test, and/or prototyping.  Please contact the mailing list for more information.

There is working being done on the N8VEM N8 (previously called "home computer") which will have some MSX compatibility.  An ECB MSX cartridge reader PCB will soon be available along with MSX cartridge PCBs for EPROM games and applications.  N8 beta testers

There are four "mini-board" PCBs available; Juha SD, PPIDE, ECB to Z80 socket shim, and AT2XTKBD.  All mini-board PCBs are $5 plus shipping which is $1 per board in the US and typically $3 per board overseas.

There are XT-IDE PCBs available which are $12 plus shipping which is $2 per board in the US and typically $5 per board overseas.

In addition, there are S-100 products being developed.  John Monahan from S100Computers.com and the N8VEM project have made several S-100 boards such as the

1. S-100 backplane
2. S-100 regular prototyping board
3. S-100 buffered prototyping board
4. S-100 IDE
5. S-100 parallel ASCII keyboard
6. S-100 4MB SRAM board
7. S-100 System Monitor Board
8. S-100 Bus Extender
9. S-100 EPROM
10. S-100 IO board
11. S-100 PIC/RTC
12. S-100 Z80 CPU
13. S-100 Console IO
14. S-100 Intelligent Floppy Disk Controller
15. S-100 8086 CPU 

Several more are in work at present such as the S-100 68K CPU board, S-100 6502 CPU board, and the S-100 80286 CPU board.  The S-100 boards are available rather sporadically so please contact me to be placed on the special email distribution list for S-100 development.  The plan is to make a completely free (as in speech) and open S-100 system which is fully functional but not quite complete at the moment.

Alan Wilcox is generously allowing the N8VEM home brew computing project to use his S-100 68K CPU board design from his historical work on 68000 microcomputer systems "68000 Microcomputer Systems Designing and Troubleshooting".  The N8VEM home brew computer project is developing a PCB of the  S-100 68K CPU board for educational purposes.  Alan is an accomplished author with several books -- Biography and Alan D. Wilcox's books -- including his most recent book "Say for me Kaddish, An Engineer's Life and Advice".  The PCB is presently in development with no reliable estimate for completion.  For detailed information on the S-100 68K CPU board project, please get a copy of Alan's book 68000 Microcomputer Systems: Designing and Troubleshooting and join the project!

Please see the sidebar for links to more information and also the folders for related photos and files on the various N8VEM components.  Schematics, parts lists, PCB layout, software, and various forms of documentation are available here or on request. 

If you are interested in purchasing PCBs to make your own N8VEM system please contact LYNCHAJ@YAHOO.COM 

Combining multiple PCBs in an order will reduce shipping charges based on weight.  Special arrangements are available for groups and/or institutional educational purposes.  Please email for details.