The premier 8 bit processor chip of the early days of microprocessors. Made by Zilog, it used a “reverse” Intel 8080 assembler set but was for all practical purposes a better mousetrap and the world beat a path to Zilog's door. The subsequent offerings from Zilog, the Z800 and Z8000 were directly competitive to the Intel 8085 and 8086; we all know who won that war, especially since you probably never have heard of the Z800 or Z8000. The Z80 was and is ideal for embedded control applications. (A great percentage of TV remote control units use Z80s as the brain.) The Z80 architecture incorporates dual register banks that enable fast context switching and interrupt handling. Discover why this microprocessor is still receiving praise from engineers worldwide even after its initial 1974 introduction. Check the Z80 out at HTTP://WWW.ZILOG.COM.
