For those that haven't seen it, the Z-80 processor is going out of production. Not quite up there with the 6502, 68K, or 8088 families for the amount of devices that used them but still it's one of the biggies. Used in things like the arcade version of Pac-man, SMS, ColecoVision,, Genesis, and even the Gameboy used a variant of it.
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Time to pour one out for legend, the Z-80 will be discontinued
- Thread starter dave_d
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AndrewRyan
Member
Bought a Timex Sinclair at a garage sale that had one of those chips inside. Interesting history.
Puscifer
Member
You should read C by Dennis Ritchie, I don't even program but damn it's beautifully written.
Dacvak
No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
That's probably pretty hard to answer concretely, but I'd venture to guess no, not really. I'm honestly quite surprised the Z80 was still being produced up to this point.
Guess we'll always have FPGAs, though.
Wait i thought genesis was a 68k?
StereoVsn
Member
Yep, there are Z80 replicas, newish 8088 small notebooks and more. There is also pretty cool new Commodore 64 replacement system with enhanced graphics and audio called Commander X16 .
It was but also had a z-80 to do sound and SMS backward compatibility.
AndrewRyan
Member
Yes! Now is an incredible time since there's sooooo many options and interesting choices. The two I'm most familiar with are the STM32 and ESP32. You can get breakout boards for less than $2 and many scalable options within the family.
If I was just starting out and wanting to learn just for fun I'd go for the RISC V platform. It's open source and there's now some inexpensive boards available.
Hudo
Member
I think everyone read The C Programming Language. And yeah, I agree. That book is also really good as well.
I also think another great book to read to get into functional programming (via LISP) is Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Sussman and Abelson. But I learned FP via Haskell... which is a bit of a different animal; leans more heavily into category theory.
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Kdad
Member
RoboFu
One of the green rats
Devices were better when there were 3 main CPUs.
The genesis used a 6800 for its main cpu yes but it used a z80 for a sound controller and master system bc.
Tams
Member
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Wait... you mean it's still in production? That's the real news to me. What a champ.
thicc_girls_are_teh_best
Member
Friggin god-tier CPU alongside the Motorola 68K.
MrTroubleMaker
Member
Nice long run for such a good processor.
Ah yes I forgot.
Hudo
Member
The 68K was truly one of the best CPUs ever made.
MonkeyClaw36
Member
AndrewRyan
Member
GitHub project: a pin compatible, open-source replacement for classic Zilog Z80
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