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Zilog To File For Chapter 11
Frédéric writes: "The venerable company ZiLOG who was founded in 1974, and who brought us the famous Z80 CPU (used in the Timex/Sinclair ZX80/ZX81, and the Amstrad CPC/PCW computers), is filling for Chapter 11 ... I didn't find the today's news on the web, but found this article at Silicon Strategy and this one at Electronics times, which was written a few days ago to announce it."
Don't forget that the Z80A was the CPU for TRS-80 model 1's & 3's, too. It was the first assembly I learned and it taught me a vast respect for memory conservation (4K was all that was available at the time).
Don't forget most of the TI graphing calculators. . .
ZiLOG intends to launch an exchange offer in which all holders of its notes will be offered the opportunity to exchange their notes for shares of ZiLOG common stock, plus a pro rata share of the $30 million non-recourse note. The exchange offer, which for tax and other legal reasons the company intends to complete through a prepackaged Chapter 11 filing, is not expected to have any adverse affect on its day-to-day operations or on its ability to provide a full range of products and services to its customers or pay its suppliers on normal terms.
I dont think we have much to worry about here.
Tux Games. Your complete source for native Linux games.
The Z80 is also used in the venerable TI-85 calculator, and related models.
The Zilog Z-80 is was used in many embedded applications...I think it's being used less and less now, but I can think of a few devices off the top of my head that are still Z80 based. The Sharp Wizard electronic organizer is one example, the Gameboy is another. It's probably used in a lot of things you wouldn't think of, like phones and such too.
My journal has hot
No. The 8088 was a "bus limited" version of the 8086, Intel's first generation of the x86 architecture.
Internally, the 8088 was identical to the 8086, same registers, same instruction set, but it had the advantage of working on all the 8-bit bus infrastructure.
Remember, this is not an involuntary bankruptcy (at least not completely). Zilog is filing a "pre-pack" which means that they've gotten together in advance with all of their creditors and gotten them to exchange their debt for equity. Zilog will not disappear - in fact, this really only stands to make them financially healthier.
Intertec's Superbrain, built around 1979, had dual Z80s (one for diskette I/O and booting, the other for everything else). 16k of DRAM - expandable to 64k with a soldering iron. It ran CP/M 2.2. I last used it in 1989 for a college project.
Only the ti-86 and lower have z80 chips. The ti-89, ti-92, and the ti-92 plus all have motorola 68k processors. If you've seen em in action, they graph a lot faster than the z80. Of course, the z80 calculators are just fine for most graphing.
In the UK, Sinclair computers and their derivtives were huge - much more well known than the US Timex TRS-XX machines (though geeks here seem to remember them fondly:
IIRC, all these machines had some Z-80 derivative:
ZX80 1K RAM (actually named after the year it came out)
ZX81 1K or 16K RAM
Spectrum (development codename ZX82) 16K or 48K RAM [+]
Spectrum + (larger, "better" keyboard)
Spectrum 128 (a vast 128K of RAM)
Spectrum 128 +2 (built in cassette deck!)
Spectrum 128 +3 (build in 3" *not 3.25"* 2 sided (by ejecting it and turning it over) floppy disk)
There were a couple of others.
Then also things like the
MGT Sam Coupe - which was compatible
I, my family or my firends owned every single one of these fine Z80 powered machines at one time or another. Hell, I learned to program in Sinclair basic. If Zilog have gone under (Chapter 11 doesn't mean its necessarily over) this is a sad day.
[+] actually this was a marketing lie. It had 32K RAM and 16K ROM with a unified address space. I think the 16K version had the same ROM, so it would be fairer to call that a 32K, if you want to include the total...
Lord Pixel - The cat who walks through walls
A little bigger on the inside than out
Yes, even Commodore used a Z80. Specifically in the C-128, which could boot into a CP/M mode running on the Z80, or into regular C-128 mode on the 8502, or into C-64 emulation mode (also on the 8502). I don't think there was any way to run both CPUs at the same time.
I don't know how many people actually used this feature (probably not many, given how well the C-128 did in the marketplace), but it was kind of neat at the time.
Z80 also powered the sound chip in the Sega Genesis and a modified chip was used in the Gameboy.
Yes, not to mention the TI-81, 85, 86, 82, and 83. Fine machines, they were...
We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from the machinations of the wicked.
No. If I am not mistaken, the story goes like this:
8080--->8088/8086 -> *x86 (Intel)
\-->Z80 (Zilog)
With various extended and enhanced such as the Z80A from Zilog (faster version) or the 8088-2 from Intel (the one I had in my first PC).
-Raphaël
Go ahead, tell me I am trolling, but how on earth did a company with an ancient, 8-bit architecture manage to get idiots to throw $280M at it?
By creating an architecture that is still used today in everything from calculators to embedded industrial control applications. Not every application needs ghz class CPUs, 512MB of RAM, and pipelined parallel processing.
It's guys like you that keep guys like me employed. Every problem presented to you is solved with a PC in some form factor or another. Computerized home thermostat? Mini PC on a board. Web server for monitoring temperature and pressure? PC in a rack mount case with an A/D board. Telephone voice mail system? PC in a funny looking case. Then when your product is hopelessly over the price target and behind schedule, guys like me get calls, choose an appropriate architecture, be it a PIC, Z80, AVR, or something else, and get the project back in line with reality.
Go ahead and mod this down as flamebait or troll if you want. I've got 50 Karma points as I post this so I'll live with 47 if need be.
Chapter 11 - Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code is frequently referred to as "reorganization." Although an individual may file under Chapter 11, generally it is used to reorganize a business. Individuals with large federal or state tax obligations may use Chapter 11 because an extended period of time may be obtained for the repayment of the taxes. Chapter 11 generally allows the debtor to continue its business operations as it proceeds to the desired goal of a confirmed Plan of Reorganization, which must meet certain statutory criteria. A major rationale for business reorganizations is that the value of a business as an ongoing concern is greater than it would be if its assets were liquidated and sold. Generally, it is more economically efficient in the long run to reorganize than to liquidate, because doing so preserves jobs and assets. Cooperation among the various interests, however, is crucial to a successful reorganization.
Chapter 7 is liquidation where basically everything is gone. Chapter 11 doesn't necessarily mean death for a company. Hell, look at Chrysler.
Yep, the 8080 came first. The Z-80 second.
The Z-80 added block i/o and block move instructions, along with a mirror register set. Mostly, one would avoid these instructions to provide compatibility for the 8080-using luddites of the time. Sure, it was possible to detect. We would opt for smaller code size many times as 64K was the limit unless of course the machine was of the nifty bank-switching variety. Every byte used by the BIOS took away from CP/M's TPA (Transient Program Area, the limit on the size of the application). BITD, some vendors beat out the competition on TPA size alone.
The mirror register set was a real bonus over the 8080. It took only a handful of clock cycles, and was way cheaper than pushing/popping in an ISR.
cat
It looks like a delay loop, but the 16-bit increment and decrement instructions don't modify the zero-flag, so it either executes once or loops forever.
You probably want:
LD BC,0ffffh
LOOP: DEC BC
LD A,B
OR C
JP NZ,LOOP
... was the dual register set. It was used to good advantage in embedded systems where the executive would use one set and the app would use the other. If you remember the chess program Sargon, it used one set for white's state and one for black's. It was a pretty neat machine. But like many of the 8-bit stuff out there, it didn't make the jump to 16 bits gracefully. The Z8000 was pretty dismal...
That is all.
not true. the Empire State Building has gone bankrupt dozens and dozens - literally - of times in its life.
the interplay of debt and equity offer the capability to create investments with non-differentiatable payout patterns. Sometimes these make sense. Bankruptcy means that the current equity holders's stake has gone to zero, so their rights dissolve and the debt holders become the new equity holders. All of the assets continue to exist, simply their ownership changes.
from their website:
ZiLOG REACHES AGREEMENT IN PRINCIPLE WITH KEY BONDHOLDERS TO SUPPORT ITS PLAN TO RECAPITALIZE COMPANY
A Significant Step in Returning the Company to Full Financial Health;
Follows Strong Third Quarter Performance
Campbell, CA (November 27, 2001) ZiLOG,® Inc., the Extreme Connectivity(TM) Company, today announced it has reached an agreement in principle with certain key holders of its Senior Secured Notes to support the company's plan to recapitalize ZiLOG. These bondholders hold more than 60 percent of the senior debt outstanding. Under the proposed recapitalization plan, ZiLOG's bondholders would exchange their $280 million in notes for equity, plus a $30 million non-recourse note.
"We have made significant progress in returning ZiLOG to full financial health," said Jim Thorburn, ZiLOG's Chief Executive Officer. "We have a cash flow positive business and on approval of this plan we will substantially strengthen our balance sheet, with the elimination of our senior notes."
Hi,
h tm
I'm an electrical engineer - I design chips like
the ones Zilog made.
I used to work in the Treasure Valley, and had
contacts to Zilog. Their management and safety
practices were like something out of the 1950's.
Here's an article about 30 employees suing them
for chemical exposure:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctb913.
Chemical exposure happens in this industry, but
the really stupid thing about this case was that
(a) The employees were exposed to chemicals
that all the other chip fabs stopped using 10
years ago; (b) the management wouldn't do simple
things like fix the ventilation system.
Their attidude was, "If we fix the ventilation
system, we are admitting there was a problem
with it before we fixed it, and then the
employees could sue is."
I wouldn't work for a company like that -
apparently, other qualified engineers felt the
same way.
Sorry, Not all are based on m68000s The 89 and 92(+) are (10 and 12 MHz depending on each calc's hardware version), but the majority of ti calcs are based on z80s running at 6MHz (82,83,83+,85,86)(the 83+SE uses a 15MHz version)