On 03/29/2019 08:30 PM, Dave Collier-Brown via talk wrote: > > Zylog still builds z80s, albeit in India --dave > > On 2019-03-29 3:51 p.m., Stewart Russell via talk wrote: >> On Fri., Mar. 29, 2019, 11:28 Kevin Cozens via talk, <[email protected] >> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >> >> >> It was just something I noticed. I was partly surprised that >> ghidra included >> some older processors in their list of ones for which they can >> decompile code. >> >> >> Z80 will still show up in industrial control things. It seems very >> hard to kill. >> >> At least we might have seen the end of 1802s in real applications. It >> is still popular for some hobbyists, though.
When designers design custom chips, they rely on logic libraries, which provide common functions, including CPUs. So the designer would choose a CPU, add memory and I/O and "compile" the new chip. The libraries contain many historic CPUs, as they provide all the function and performance needed. If the job can be done with a 4 bit CPU, such as a 4040, there's no need for a 64 bit CPU. One factor that's critical with chip design, is "real estate". The smaller you can make it, the cheaper it will be and provide higher yield. Several years ago, I used to repair point of sale terminals that had a custom chip built around a Z80 core. --- Talk Mailing List [email protected] https://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
