This week Zilog announced that the Venerable Z80 processor will be discontinued and will not be manufactured as a DIP anymore, the brainchild of Federico Faggin one of the creators of the original Intel 4004, the Z80 is a landmark in processors and was used in a variety of appliances, computers, and hardware that we cannot even imagine like the TRS-80, the CollecoVision, Sharp Hotbit, Gradient Expert, TK90X, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and many others.
Widely used in the hobbyist, maker, and electronics scene this little marvel will be missed by a legion of people who learned to love it in his tenure of 48 years in the market, the way it works, his small instruction set, and the versatility that has been introduced with him.
But not all is tears about this 8-bit giant, the Z80 architecture will continue to be used for a long time in the form of FPGA implementations, and as an example to teach processor architecture, and probably we will see clones in the market if the opportunity appears.
Can appear foolish to say goodbye to a small piece of silicon, but for people from an electronics background is a part of our history that will not be forgotten, from a time when we had to assemble our own computers or create our small systems.
Nothing more to say.
So Long Venerable Z80 and thanks for all the fish! You will be missed but will stay with us for long, long time.
Z80 Product line: Z84C00 - End of Life/Last Time Buy Notification
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