The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog that played an important role in the evolution of early computing. Software-compatible with the Intel 8080, it offered a compelling alternative due to its lower cost and increased performance. The Z80 boasted fourteen registers compared to the 8080's seven, along with additional instructions for bit manipula… See more
At Fairchild Semiconductor, and later at Intel, physicist and engineer Federico Faggin had been working on fundamental transistor and semiconductor manufacturing technology. He also developed the basic design methodolo… See more
The programming model and register set of the Z80 are fairly conventional, ultimately based on the register structure of the Datapoint 2200. The Z80 was designed as an extension of the Intel 8080, created by the same e… See more
Mostek, which produced the first Z80 for Zilog, offered it as second-source as MK3880. SGS-Thomson (now STMicroelectronics) was a second-source, too, with their Z8400. Sharp and NEC developed … See more
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Z80 was used in a great number of fairly anonymous business-oriented machines with the CP/M operating system, a combination that dominated the market at the time. F… See more