Z80 discontinued after 48 years
macca
Posts: 750
Just in case retrocomputing enthusiasts here haven't yet read the news...
Seems that Zilog is discontinuing all classic Z80 CPUs
https://www.mouser.com/PCN/Littelfuse_PCN_Z84C00.pdf
Comments
The Z80 has always been my favorite CPU of all time, ever since I was introduced to it in 1991. I cut my teeth on the 6502, but the Z80 has always brought me back, even after all these years!
I've even got a current Z80 Retro Computer build going and an RC2014 computer on my website.
https://savagecircuits.com/z80-projects/
I guess I will probably stock up on a few chips, based on this news. A sad day, indeed.
Well that's troubling. 65C02s are still going though, so it's not quite the apocalypse. (Even 65C816 is still available if you want to immediately be transported to the pain realm)
I have the WDC 65C02 from the Ben Eater kit. Who ever thought in the 80s / 90s we'd have a 14 MHz 65C02 CPU?
I think those actually became available rather quickly. The problem is that the 65xx is bound by its memory timing and memory that fast wasn't cheap/available. Over in the other thread I'm working on a SNES emulator. That came out in 1990/91 with a 65816 at 3.58 MHz. Which is quite low, but it gets slowed down even more (to ~ 2.68 MHz) on every cycle that accesses memory, because the DRAMs and mask ROMs they had weren't fast enough. So only internal cycles actually run at full speed. (Eventually fast ROM became cheaper and they could make cartridges that run at full speed, but RAM cycles stay slow). (Though curiously, PC Engine uses a 65C02 clone @ 7.16 MHz with no wait states and that came out even earlier. I think NEC had their own mask ROM fab to make it cheap...)
I looked it up after seeing your post. It seems the WDC 65C02 was released in 1983. I only really had access the 6502 CPUs that ran at 1-2 MHz, usually in an Apple II or VIC-20 / 1541 disk drive. I wasn't aware of the WDC 65C02 until 1994 or thereabouts and after thinking about it, I believe the reason is because once I got into the Z80, I really stopped doing anything with the 6502 until I picked up the Ben Eater kit in 2020, getting back to my retro phase.
On the subject of the Z80 though, while the CPUs have (at least until now) been relatively easy to find, the support chips not so much, especially in the higher speeds. I'm referring to the SIO, CTC, etc.
I do find it interesting that there have been so many Z80 emulator projects, even with the P1 / P2.
Hmm, looks like the foundry has pulled the process, but this covers the original Z80, (Z84C00) Zilog still have Z80 variants.
There is a bit of confusion here, some states that only DIP40 versions will be discontinued, however also QFP versions seems end-of-life at Mouser.
The Z180 already was discontinued in PLCC68 few months ago but survives in other SMD packages.
The eZ80 series is not affected.
I can't believe you can still get these. It would cost a fortune to make it work not to mention finding parts that run on 5 volts.
Mike
Over the years I have built dozens of Z80-based systems. Some for fun and some for practical purpose. I've yet to build a system and have trouble finding parts. I have parts cabinets full of 74xx logic, EPROMs, EEPROMS, SRAM, Parallel LCD Modules, PIA / VIA chips, UARTS, etc. About the only part I used a lot that is no longer readily available were the C= keyboards I used to use for input, since these were an 8x8 matrix interface. I'll probably switch to PS/2 keyboards.
If the FAB line process is killed, then all package variants will be EOL.
PLCC68 prune sounds like normal low-volume line removal.
Sharp, Toshiba and Kawasaki also have Z80 variants, not sure how 'active' in 2024 those are ?