E O L
It ain't over 'till it's over
It's hard to love the Z80 these days
when Zilog shot itself in the foot
so many times and so many ways.
The last nail in the coffin?
Exactly 2 years ago:
Zilog Z80 EOL (End Of Life) notice
April 15, 2024
Summary
The Z80 "won" the 8-bit wars with its
- ease of interfacing
- 8080 software compatibility
- additional instructions for higher performance and higher code density
- high CPU speeds
- peripheral chips that required barely any glue logic
and self arbitrated interrupts
- the wonderful interrupt mode 2 for full vectored interrupts
- The CP/M operating system
Those elements combined contributed/led to
thousands of computer designs, worldwide
by countless mfgrs of
- business machines
- home computers
- kits for hobbyist
- embedded applications
User groups and communities empowered folks to
design and build their own systems.
Still operating undercover as an embedded processor,
the Z80 never really went away.
