The ZX Spectrum Ula: How to Design a Microcomputer (ZX Design Retro Computer)

Very interesting and in depth book. Much more than a normal recollection / history of tech style book, this truly delved into the engineering behind the ZX ULA chip, and by extension the design of the Spectrum.

I would have loved to have had access to this book back when I had my ZX Spectrum back in the 80s.You will likely love this if you are thinking of writing your own ZX Spectrum emulator for fun, or if you are building your own Z80 based computer from scratch.

My first computer was ZX81. At that time it was not very educative on the HW side as all interesting was stuffed inside the ULA chip. This book gives lots of general information about how ULA works and how it is put together.

This was a much more interesting book than I expected. Even if you’re not a ZX Spectrum enthusiast, the way in which the ULA was reverse-engineered is interesting to hobbyists who might consider using FPGA to replace older bespoke ICs.

Great book, well structured and if you were a ZX Spectrum owner way back in the 1980s you'll love it. Great book to get an insight into building a simple computer.

This book is truly exceptional, real gem. It goes into ULA design down to the gate level, describing the role of each and every gate, flip-flop and signal. It even describes the semi-analog stuff (e.g. YUV signal generation, sound/tape output, etc.). I wasn't aware that ZX Spectrum contained so many clever hacks, like stopping Z80 clock during video generator RAM fetch to avoid bus contention, pretty cool stuff :)This book is not for the faint of heart, but if you like such a low-level, hardware stuff - it's a must.

This is a great book, not just for ZX-spectrum fans & hobbyists but, in my opinion, for anyone interested in really delving into the nuts and bolts of a classic 8-bit computer.Detailed outline of the system, the hardware and how it was implemented in the original ULA. Full of diagrams, schematics representations and thorough descriptions.Along with "The Complete. SPECTRUM. ROM. DISASSEMBLY" this book is a must have.- J

This is a must-have for any serious retrocomputing enthusiast. One can really appreciate the reverse-engineering efforts done by the author.However. the book could be better written and the excessive number of grammar errors and typos is annoying. (I really don't understand why some people release books without any proofreading.)