The Z80 is still manufactured today and I was wondering whether there is any interest for a community or discussion group.
The Z80 is still manufactured today and I was wondering whether there is any interest for a community or discussion group.
More accurately Intel had no idea of how to make the CPUs when they took on the job.
Intel had to hire Federico Faggin to obtain the necessary technology and skills.
Essentially Federico Faggin took just 9 months of 80 hour weeks to make them.
Wow what an accomplishment!!!
Since Intel didn't want to make CPUs Faggin left and started Zilog with a few of his mates.
Zilog's focus was actually the Z8 microcontroller and not the Z80.
Thank goodness the Z80 took off!
Safety Applications?
What would you be looking at doing? Most off the shelf safety controllers used in industrial applications that require certification (very few safety applications don't!) are dual processors with watchdogs to each from each to ensure that it all behaves according to plan.
If you want to certify this application for use then there is a very long road ahead to get certification to the relevant standards.
So what's watching the watchdogs, and what's watching the watchdog's watchdogs, and what's watching the watchdog's watchdog's watchdog?.....
A zap of uncontrolled ESD can put it all at risk.
How did Toyota and other car manufacturers get some of their code so wrong to cause safety issues?
MISRA standards are only a starting point.
I would have an interest in such a discussion. I still build with them and have since the 70s. Still have handfuls of them to play with. Have made several dev. boards also.(I realize this is a very old post)
That's fantastic!
I found the Z80 to be an absolutely perfect tuition aid as you didn't need a computer to build a computer.
(However a PROM programmer comes in quite handy!)
The most simple Z80 configuration doesn't require any external memory and can blink LEDS and can also run as a pausable and resettable binary counter.