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   Tom Electronics⚡️ (tomcom@mastodon.nl)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 05:37:44 JST Tom Electronics⚡️

   LittleFuse (Zilog's parent company) took the last orders for the #Z80 yesterday.

   After 48 years of constant production, #Zilog will no longer produce the Z80 as LittleFuse is unable to keep producing the current Z84Cxxxx series using the 4-micron (4000 nm) CMOS process.

   The legendary chip, designed by the legendary Federico Faggin in 1976 was largely responsible for the microcomputer revolution and is still beloved by electronics hobbyists today.

   It had one hell of an impact! RIP Z80

   • Pleroma-tan likes this.
   • Embed this notice
     GabeMoralesVR (gabemoralesvr@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 05:37:46 JST GabeMoralesVR

     in reply to

     • Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷

     @tomcom @KimSJ The Z80 isn't going nowhere. The very first FOSS fabrication of an open source Z80 occurred days ago: https://github.com/rejunity/z80-open-silicon

     People can now freely produce their own Z80 clones through companies like tiny tapeout. Z80 lives.

     More info: https://tinytapeout.com/runs/tt07/

     fabrication plans were finalized June 1st, and the first fabrication run was successful. They are gearing up for a full production run, the new z80s will be available for purchase by October.

     clacke likes this.
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     Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷 (kimsj@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 05:37:48 JST Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷

     in reply to

     @tomcom Truly the end of an era. My company used both a Z80 and a 6502 in the same design when they were the leading edge of microprocessor technology…
     Here’s an article on it, though it wrongly suggests it had two Z80s, not one plus a 6502.
     https://chrisacorns.computinghistory.org.uk/8bit_Upgrades/SJR_HDFS.html

   • Embed this notice
     Tom Electronics⚡️ (tomcom@mastodon.nl)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 05:37:48 JST Tom Electronics⚡️

     in reply to

     • Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷

     @KimSJ wow, nice to see someone who used it back in the day. And yeah it's sad to see the Z80 go, especially since it's what got me into electronics.

     Funnily enough the 6502 is still being produced by WDC, and they're using a much newer process node so hopefully it'll be around for a long time to come🤞

     clacke repeated this.
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     Jona Joachim (jaj@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 05:37:58 JST Jona Joachim

     in reply to

     • GabeMoralesVR
     • Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷

     @tomcom
     Given the size of the original DIP you could probably add 3V3 to 5V level shifters 😅
     @GabeMoralesVR @KimSJ

     clacke likes this.
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     Tom Electronics⚡️ (tomcom@mastodon.nl)'s status on Sunday, 16-Jun-2024 05:37:59 JST Tom Electronics⚡️

     in reply to

     • GabeMoralesVR
     • Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷

     @GabeMoralesVR @KimSJ unfortunately it's not quite compatible with the original. The tiny tapeout ICs are 3.3V not 5V.

     But this does give me hope. Maybe one day we'll be able to buy brand new, 5V DIP Z80s again.

     clacke likes this.