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Zilog To File For Chapter 11

Posted by Hemos on from the death-of-the-old-timers dept.

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."

4 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Re:They're _still_ pushing the Z80 by dillon_rinker · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Go read Von Neumann and Turing.

    You can do ANYTHING with an 8-bit microcontroller. It just isn't necessarily easy.

  2. Re:$280M debt? by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Did they REALLY expect a Z80 with a TCP/IP stack to set the world on fire enough to pay back $280M? QUARTER OF A BILLION DOLLARS!?!?!
    You seem to forget the embedded/controller market. There are zillions of devices in the field based on Z-80 controllers, and gillions of software written for it. This is something you just don't throw out overnight.

    And a instantly-networkable Z-80 will definitely fill some needs, if only for the plentifulness of implementing distributed systems via TCP/IP.

  3. Re:They're _still_ pushing the Z80 by rnturn · · Score: 3, Insightful
    ``Can you do anything with an 8-bit microcontroller anymore? :)''

    The smiley indicates that you were probably joking. But... there's probably enough brainwashed budding engineers out there who will take it for granted that they need a Pentium class microprocessor to power the next programmable Mr. Coffee. They probably want to use Windows CE, too. Just you wait. Laziness will result in your ``smart'' kitchen appliances requiring muffin fans to keep the processors cooled.

    (Damn but I'm cynical today...)

    --
    CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
  4. Saw it coming.. by Prizm · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm from Nampa, ID, just down the road from the Nampa Zilog-manufacturing plant. I can't say that i didn't see huge losses coming from this company, although the bankruptcy surprised me.

    Zilog has had problems finding a niche for quite some time. In recent years (months?), they have been highly influenced by the market trends, which have affected their product directions. I mean, their main product as of recent is a z80 webserver kit.

    I still think there's plenty of room in the market for a microcontrollers company, but this company needs some serious restructuring. Along those same lines, they need to keep their logos for more than a month at a time. Every time I drive by the plant they have a new logo and coloring scheme, the most recent of which is a horrid yellow-on-purple. You haven't seen tacky until you've seen a beautiful, white, futuristic-looking technology building with a giant yellow 'Z' plastered on the front, covering all the windows.

    Should have seen this bankrupty coming from that alone!