OT: Anyone sad the Z80 is no more?

[cbmeeks]

I realize the Z80 is made in many forms (including fast modern versions with lots of features). But it seems the 40 pin DIP package is ceasing production. Mouser even says it's end of life.

I personally think this is a sad day. While I am a 6502 fan to my core (no pun intended), I'm still fond of the Z80 as it powers a lot of machines I have.

No one wants to say the quiet part out loud, but how long until the WDC65C02 runs dry?

[GARTHWILSON]

I think Bill Mensch believes in the 65xx more than Littelfuse believes in the Z80.  For Littelfuse (which acquired Zilog in 2017), which is a publicly traded corporation with stockholders and $2.36 billion of annual revenue, it has to be all about the money.  Bill Mensch started WDC specifically for the 65c02, and refused to grow his company when investors wanted to come in and invest, because he knew it would change the mission.

[plasmo]

Used Z80 are plentiful and cheap, even though most of them had been relabeled, but they can be exhaustively tested to make sure they were Z80 underneath. So I don’t think hobbyists are impacted by Z80 end of life. New commercial designs with Z80 will be impacted, however. It is time to move on for the commercial designers.
Bill

[barnacle]

There were a lot of second source makers, too - any of them still producing Z80 clones?

(I'm probably in a minority of one here: I really didn't like the Z80 and even when I had to use it I almost always restricted code to the 8080 subset. Even the 'avoid the Intel copyright' assembly language bugged me... just one of those things, I guess. I did like the 8080, in spite of its flaws!)

Neil

[Yuri]

That's surprising to hear, I was considering getting a couple of Z80s just to play with. (Guess I'll need to do that quickly before all the newly minted ones are snapped up.)

[barrym95838]

barnacle wrote:

(I'm probably in a minority of one here: I really didn't like the Z80 and even when I had to use it I almost always restricted code to the 8080 subset. Even the 'avoid the Intel copyright' assembly language bugged me... just one of those things, I guess. I did like the 8080, in spite of its flaws!)

Neil

Yeah, the 8080 and Z80 both have impressive binary density, but as someone who doesn't write code for either and only studies them with the intention of porting to the 6502, I find the Zilog source easier to understand, e.g. EX (SP),HL vs. XTHL. Both eventually end up giving me a headache, which the 6502 and 6800/6809 do not.

[BigEd]

For new hobby projects, the ez80 microcontroller seems pretty nice - it's not DIP, but it does have a z80 compatibility angle as well as a nicely done 24 bit address extension, and AFAICT some parts expose a z80 style memory bus too. And it runs fast. (The Agon Light uses one.)

[6502inside]

There are various rumours that Rochester may buy the masks and chug out some more, which fits with their business model. Hopefully Littelfuse blaming their contract foundry is inaccurate since that may affect other parts.

[Martin_H]

Does this mean the 6502 has finally won the eight but CPU war?

[DavidL]

Martin_H wrote:

Does this mean the 6502 has finally won the eight but CPU war?

Hahaha, don't forget the 8051. After the Final Nuclear Armageddon there will be 3 lifeforms that survive: rats, roaches, and the 8051.

[Martin_H]

DavidL wrote:

Hahaha, don't forget the 8051. After the Final Nuclear Armageddon there will be 3 lifeforms that survive: rats, roaches, and the 8051.

LOL, I am part of the problem. I have an 8051 I used to make a servo controller in my basement.

[barnacle]

DavidL wrote:

Martin_H wrote:

Does this mean the 6502 has finally won the eight but CPU war?

Hahaha, don't forget the 8051. After the Final Nuclear Armageddon there will be 3 lifeforms that survive: rats, roaches, and the 8051.

And Keith Richards, of course.

Neil