While the long-lived Z80 continues on in Z180 and eZ80 forms, the standalone DIP-packaged variants' days are numbered.
  • Magister@lemmy.worldEnglish
    24·
    7 months ago

    Incredible, I started with a ZX81 (it was using a Z80) in 1981, then moved to a CPC6128 in 1984, still using a Z80, I learnt assembler on it, cracking games, etc, good memories :)

    • Diplomjodler@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      7 months ago

      Greetings, fellow geezer! I had the ZX81 in kit form, which meant you had to solder on every single component yourself. I still have it in the basement somewhere.

  • Richard@lemmy.worldEnglish
    17·
    7 months ago

    Oh don’t worry, TI will find another decades old CPU to put into their overpriced calculators!

    • Thorry84@feddit.nlEnglish
      81·
      7 months ago

      Don’t forget about the MSX, Commodore 128, the Sega Mastersystem and the Gameboy (although that used a custom modified version of the Z80, but very similar)

      • palordrolap@kbin.social
        1·
        7 months ago

        The Z80 was a secondary processor in the C128. The main processor was the rival MOS8502, a descendent of the Z80’s main rival, the MOS6502.

        The Z80 was included so that the C128 would be able to run CP/M software which was considered to be an important inclusion at the time.

        CP/M was supplanted by the ubiquity of IBM-compatible PCs and MS-DOS, which is a shame considering that MS-DOS started life as something deliberately quick and dirty based heavily on the syntax of CP/M. The dir command? That’s from CP/M. The peculiar *.* wildcard syntax? Also from CP/M.

        Now, it’s true that CP/M took a lot of inspiration from Unix and similar, but it wasn’t trying to replace Unix. MS-DOS though? Arguably, it came to fill the same niche that CP/M already occupied. Except everyone was then on x86, not Z80.