Samsung/Zilog S3F94C4 programming

[kmm]

I recently picked up a few Samsung S3F94C4 microcontrollers, for no particular reason except they were something I'd never heard of before and cheap enough to buy on a lark.

Unfortunately they're not something my MiniPro burner supports, and I'm only finding the official dongle (which appears to be a different one from the EZ8 dongle I have) as part of $100+ dev kit. I'm hoping someone has a description of the programming algorithm because it doesn't appear to be in the datasheet, but looks like it should be simple to implement on an AVR or PIC.
Google doesn't turn up a whole lot of info except for the datasheet and an ISA description for the SAM88RCRI core, haven't found a "tool programming mode" app note or anything.

Also I've seen some vague references that this processor is Z8 ISA compatible, but looking through the datasheet and instructions it doesn't really appear to be unless I'm missing something about a mode switch process.

Anyone have any thoughts or just general comments on this chip?

[MK14]

Since it says on the data sheet...

efficient Z8-compatible CPU

I would think it is compatible with the Z8.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwisxMuCvuvLAhXCcBoKHZFlDCUQFggdMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zilog.com%2Fmanage_directlink.php%3Ffilepath%3Ddocs%2FPB0252%26extn%3D.pdf&usg=AFQjCNFYdArmHV15ZQt6ig6i3nHdNbyvnA&sig2=FRVSXt7f4bM003zK9XmaaA

But just 208 bytes of on chip ram (apparently), does not seem to give much capability, to do much with it, except rather simple/quick experiments and stuff.

Or a huge effort to fit a very powerful program into 208 bytes of ram variables etc, consumption.

EDIT:
I've had a quick look at the datasheet (Samsung), and can see plenty of Z8 instructions. I don't understand why you think it is NOT Z8 like.

[kmm]

Interesting, the Zilog-branded datasheet I found doesn't appear to contain the string "Z8" anywhere except in a trademark notice, and I hadn't seen that brief. Cool, good to know. I've only rarely looked at Z8 instuctions, so my guess was just based on some opcodes that didn't seem to line up, but I may have just been reading it wrong.

> But just 208 bytes of on chip ram (apparently), does not seem to give much capability, to do much with it, except rather simple/quick experiments and stuff.

Yeah, I just bought a few to dick with because they were a bit oddball (less so now that Z8 is confirmed though), at least to me. But that said, an ATiny45 controls my living room fill lights, so there's plenty of useful (if simple) things that can fit inside tiny micros. 

[MK14]

Yeah, I just bought a few to dick with because they were a bit oddball (less so now that Z8 is confirmed though), at least to me. But that said, an ATiny45 controls my living room fill lights, so there's plenty of useful (if simple) things that can fit inside tiny micros. 

Definitely (MCUs are used for many trivial things).

On this forum, I'm still/often amazed at how trivial/simple a task is, and so many people insist that an MCU is the best/right thing for it.

E.g. (Typically, not necessarily exact) flashing an LED at a defined rate, or creating a 4 minutes timing pules, etc etc.

In all fairness, accurately timing 4 minutes is NOT straight forward, without using an MCU or something. A 555 timer, would probably be out by a few percent or more, due to component tolerances. Although the MCU would probably need a crystal to make it super accurate.

[kmm]

In all fairness, accurately timing 4 minutes is NOT straight forward, without using an MCU or something. A 555 timer, would probably be out by a few percent or more, due to component tolerances. Although the MCU would probably need a crystal to make it super accurate.

"Timing 4 minutes" is roughly the problem domain of my living room lights, which are on a PIR sensor. The Tiny45 just looks for sensor hits and increments a timer a few minutes each detection, up to a limit of about an hour. Idea being if the room is actively occupied the fill lights turn on (with a pleasant ramp up/down), but don't turn off again until the room has been unoccupied for a while, so I can wander in and out without lights constantly going off and on like on a plain PIR sensor.

Could I do this entirely analog with a couple 555s, an op-amp, and a handful of passives? Probably. Would it take an afternoon like the Tiny45 implementation? Probably not, with me as the designer!

[MK14]

In all fairness, accurately timing 4 minutes is NOT straight forward, without using an MCU or something. A 555 timer, would probably be out by a few percent or more, due to component tolerances. Although the MCU would probably need a crystal to make it super accurate.

"Timing 4 minutes" is roughly the problem domain of my living room lights, which are on a PIR sensor. The Tiny45 just looks for sensor hits and increments a timer a few minutes each detection, up to a limit of about an hour. Idea being if the room is actively occupied the fill lights turn on (with a pleasant ramp up/down), but don't turn off again until the room has been unoccupied for a while, so I can wander in and out without lights constantly going off and on like on a plain PIR sensor.

Could I do this entirely analog with a couple 555s, an op-amp, and a handful of passives? Probably. Would it take an afternoon like the Tiny45 implementation? Probably not, with me as the designer!

That's very clever, what you have done with the lights, I'M IMPRESSED!

I'm jealous, I would like that. I have to manually flip a mechanical switch, each time, I want to on/off it.