Z88DK - The Development Kit for Z80 Computers

Z88DK is a collection of software development tools that targets the 8080 and z80 family of machines. It allows development of programs in C, assembly language or any mixture of the two. What makes z88dk unique is its ease of use, built-in support for many z80 machines and its extensive set of assembly language library subroutines implementing the C standard and extensions.

INSTALLATION

There are several ways to install z88dk.

1. Use the Most Recent Official Release. Follow these installation instructions.
2. Get the Nightly Build. Every night we build complete binary packages for Windows and macOS and generate source packages for everyone else. The simple installation instructions should be followed. Using a nightly build means you can keep up with bugfixes and new features rather than waiting for a formal release. (Use http:// for the nightly site; HTTPS is not always available.)
3. Use the Snap package on Linux.
4. Use the Docker image.
5. Use GitHub and build it yourself. The z88dk repository uses git submodules; they are not downloaded by a plain git clone unless you ask for them. Prefer git clone --recursive https://github.com/z88dk/z88dk.git. On an existing clone: git submodule update --init --recursive. Then follow the Linux / Unix build instructions.

After install, set PATH to include z88dk/bin and ZCCCFG to z88dk/lib/config. See the Getting started wiki page for a first compile.

The Tools

The front end of z88dk is called zcc. Call it for normal compilations. It accepts C (.c), preprocessed C (.i), assembly (.asm / .s), optimised assembly (.opt), and object files (.o), mixed in any combination, and can process a @list of files. Linking produces a binary for the selected target; -create-app runs appmake for tapes, disks, ROMs, hex files, and so on.

It is not usually necessary for a new user to invoke the other tools directly.

Many tools have a z88dk- prefix to avoid clashing with packages that ship tools of the same name. Documentation often omits the prefix when referring to them.

• zcc is the toolchain front end. See Tool — zcc.
• z88dk-sccz80 is z88dk's native C compiler (Small-C lineage; near C90 with extensions). Default for many classic and newlib recipes.
• z88dk-80cc is an alternate small-C front end (-compiler=80cc). It shares classic-compatible library linkage with sccz80 and appears in some float benchmarks under support/benchmarks.
• z88dk-zsdcc is z88dk's patched sdcc. Our patch integrates sdcc with z88dk libraries and CRTs. Select with -clib=sdcc_iy (preferred) or -clib=sdcc_ix on targets that define those CLIBs. See Compilers.
• z88dk-z80asm is the assembler / linker / librarian (sections, macros, multi-CPU). Not the same project as other tools named “z80asm”. See Tool — z80asm.
• z88dk-z80nm lists symbols in object and library files. See Tool — z80nm.
• z88dk-appmake turns linked binaries into machine images (hex, tape, disk, ROM, …). See Tool — appmake.
• z88dk-ticks is a command-line CPU emulator for cycle counts, debugging, and hotspot profiles. Match the CPU model (-m8085, …). Help is bare invocation (not -h). See Tool — ticks.
• z88dk-gdb is a gdb client for gdbserver-based debugging (emulators or hardware). See Tool — gdb.
• z88dk-dis is a multi-CPU disassembler (8080/8085, gbz80, z80/z80n, z180, ez80 modes, R800, Rabbit family, kc160). Can load z80asm map files. See Tool — dis.
• z88dk-lib installs third-party libraries. Classic packages: lib/clibs/lib/<target>/ and include/lib/<target>/. Newlib packages: libraries under lib/clibs/{sccz80,sdcc_ix,sdcc_iy}/lib/<target>/ and headers under include/_DEVELOPMENT/{proto,common}/lib/<target>/. See Tool — z88dk-lib.
• z88dk-zx0 / z88dk-zx7 and z88dk-dzx0 / z88dk-dzx7 are host compressors and decompressors; matching decompressors exist in the target libraries.

Not normally run by hand:

• m4 — macro pass for .asm.m4 / CRT generation.
• z88dk-ucpp — C preprocessor for sccz80 and zsdcc.
• z88dk-zpragma — pragma processing.
• z88dk-copt — peephole on compiler output (not hand-written libsrc asm). See Tool — copt.

Tool map and measurement workflows: tools.

Benchmarks

The assembly libraries give z88dk strong performance relative to many other Z80 C environments. See the wiki Benchmarks page.

Sources, recipes, and cycle counts live under support/benchmarks. Each program has a top-level readme.txt and toolchain notes (for example z88dk-classic/). Timing is typically classic +test plus z88dk-ticks between TIMER_START / TIMER_STOP (use -m8085 for 8085 images).

Floating-point comparisons cover genmath, math48, mbf32 / mbf32_8085, IEEE math32 / math32_8085, and half-precision math16 / math16_8085 where published (see Classic Maths Libraries and libsrc/math/float/math32/readme.md). sccz80 covers z80 and 8085 where applicable; zsdcc is Z80-class only. Some float benches also include 80cc.

• Dhrystone 2.1 — synthetic integer benchmark from the 1980s era.
• Pi — mainly 32-bit integer performance.
• Sieve of Eratosthenes — small-compiler classic; mostly loop overhead.
• Whetstone 1.2 — synthetic float (includes mbf32 / mbf32_8085).
• n-body, mandelbrot, fasta, spectral-norm — float workloads comparing math32, mbf32, and related libraries on z80 and 8085.
• Program size — CP/M binary size comparisons for small systems.

Using cmake to build z88dk projects

CMake can drive Z88DK projects (a toolchain file is provided). See the CMake wiki page.

Using z88dk

Important facts:

• There are two C library worlds: classic and newlib (headers and CRTs differ). See Headers: classic and newlib.
• There are several C compilers: sccz80 (default many recipes), zsdcc, 80cc, and experimental ez80-clang. Classic projects can mix sccz80 and zsdcc objects more freely; newlib projects should use one compiler for the whole link. See Compilers.

When you form a compile line you choose a target (+name), a compiler, and a library (-clib=). That choice depends on the machine and features you need.

The classic library is the main library for over 100 machines. Support depth varies by interest. Start at the wiki Home or Getting started. Examples: examples/ (compile lines often at the top of .c files). Overview: Classic-Overview.

The newlib rewrite aims at a large C11-style subset and ROM-friendly layouts. It still matters for targets such as HBIOS / RomWBW (+hbios), RC2014 (+rc2014), SCZ180 (+scz180), YAZ180 (+yaz180), plus newlib-oriented builds of SMS, ZX Spectrum, and Spectrum Next. Bare metal: z80 embedded (+z80 / +embedded). Docs: Newlib overview and Introduction. Examples: libsrc/_DEVELOPMENT/EXAMPLES.

Quick links

Link	What
z88dk.org / forum	Project site and discussion
Install	Installation wiki
Getting started	First zcc compile
Compilers	sccz80 / zsdcc / 80cc / clang
Tools	Tool index (including ticks methodology)
Platform index	Classic target matrix
Bug reporting	GitHub issues
Classic docs	Classic-Overview · examples examples/
Newlib docs	Newlib-Overview · examples libsrc/_DEVELOPMENT/EXAMPLES
RC2014 + z88dk	+rc2014, +hbios, CP/M on RC2014
ZX Spectrum (classic wiki)	Spectrum platform page
ZX Spectrum newlib getting started	Newlib Spectrum guide (in-tree)
doc/target/zx	Spectrum tutorial series in doc/