Re: Zilog stopping Z80 production

On Tue, 23 Apr 2024 18:44:24 -0700, Don Y
<blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:

On 4/23/2024 2:40 PM, boB wrote:

I miss playing with my old home built S-100 CP/M computer around 1980.
Those were really the fun days of computing and digital logic
circuits.

>
Nowadays, the Zx80's appeal would be in controlling things.
There's little that you can't now do *better* that you would
previously have used a CP/M box for.
>

The other day after hearing the demise of the Z80, I ordered 2 of the
20 MHz Z80  40 pin devices.  I did not even know there was a 20 MHz
version.  Not sure what I will ever do with them but who knows ?
Maybe I'll just look at them.

>
Again, in the context of "control" (i.e., deeply embedded),
you would likely also need similar speed grade peripherals
to do anything.

Yes, I know.  Address decoders are a dime a dozen (almost) and any
other peripherals can either be made  or, I may actually have the
others laying around.  I save old ICs and have since the 1970s.

>
I had a particular fondness for the '180 (and '7180!) as it
wasn't crippled by the tiny address space (64K memory + 64K I/O)
of the Z80.  Over the years, I've come to realize that you usually
need more space for *code* than data!

Wasn't familiar with those 2.  Yes, I would run out of code space with
many micro controllers.  The was always programmed in assembler and
code was fairly smalll at that time.  Amazing we were able to get
along with less than 64K !

boB

>