Is Zilog still in business?
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From: rickman on 26 Feb 2010 22:12 On Feb 26, 7:59 pm, Jim Stewart <jstew...(a)jkmicro.com> wrote: > Peter Seldon wrote: > > "Jim Stewart" <jstew...(a)jkmicro.com> wrote in message > >news:hm95r1$2m6$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... > >> Peter Seldon wrote: > > >>> Maybe if Zilog's management wasn't so incompetant, they wouldn't have crashed the > >>> company the way they did. > >> Do you mean this time or over the last 30 years? > > > Past 5 or 6 years. Which CEO said "we are getting out of the microcontroller buisness"? > > And I can't remember when they last introduced a new 8bit part. > > Someone should write a book about Zilog. The Z80 > was a remarkable part and, along with it's peripheral > chips, highly successful. After they failed to > deliver the Z800, I pretty much gave them up. I'd > like to know how it comes about that a company can > produce an excellent product line then fail 100% > to follow through. I don't remember all the terminology, but I thought they did come out with a 16 bit CPU. It was on the 32 bit machine they threw in the towel. I remember a quote by the chief architect who had also designed the Z80 basically by hand... after designing the 16 bit CPU with random logic, something about never doing it again. That was the days before VHDL and Verilog and every gate had to be put on a schematic! But then that was how Seymour Cray designed his super computers. Rick
From: -jg on 26 Feb 2010 23:19 On Feb 27, 1:59 pm, Jim Stewart <jstew...(a)jkmicro.com> wrote: > Peter Seldon wrote: > > Past 5 or 6 years. Which CEO said "we are getting out of the microcontroller buisness"? > > And I can't remember when they last introduced a new 8bit part. The Z8 was a quite good 8 bit core, it had the advantage of not being as early as the 8051, but Zilog were very late bring flash versions, and they have a lot of very similar variants. Zilog DID buy a good Compiler tools company, but their truly appalling web site would never let new customers know that. > Someone should write a book about Zilog. The Z80 > was a remarkable part and, along with it's peripheral > chips, highly successful. After they failed to > deliver the Z800, I pretty much gave them up. I'd > like to know how it comes about that a company can > produce an excellent product line then fail 100% > to follow through. Yes, as an example, Rabbit have spun 3 variants of their core, whilst Zilog only managed a single bug-fix pass of their Z80Acclaim. Given the truly massive software base the Z80 enjoyed, even now there is a lot of potential for the Z80 still, but again Zilog's web site would not let you know that... [Imagine if they had dropped Turbo Pascal 1.0 in ROM, into a corner of the Z80Acclaim...]
From: D Yuniskis on 27 Feb 2010 01:10 Hi Jim, Jim Stewart wrote: > Peter Seldon wrote: >> "Jim Stewart" <jstewart(a)jkmicro.com> wrote in message >> news:hm95r1$2m6$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... >>> Peter Seldon wrote: >>> >>>> Maybe if Zilog's management wasn't so incompetant, they wouldn't >>>> have crashed the company the way they did. >>> Do you mean this time or over the last 30 years? >> >> Past 5 or 6 years. Which CEO said "we are getting out of the >> microcontroller buisness"? And I can't remember when they last >> introduced a new 8bit part. > > Someone should write a book about Zilog. The Z80 > was a remarkable part and, along with it's peripheral > chips, highly successful. After they failed to Agreed. > deliver the Z800, I pretty much gave them up. I'd > like to know how it comes about that a company can > produce an excellent product line then fail 100% > to follow through. Z280, Z380, Z80000... I.e., anything with a 'Z' and an '8' in it seemed doomed! (well, the Z8000 actually *did* materialize) Even the Z180 was actually a Hitachi part (HD64180 and its variants).
From: Chris H on 27 Feb 2010 08:01 In message <hm9qpe$6pb$1(a)news.eternal-september.org>, Jim Stewart <jstewart(a)jkmicro.com> writes >Peter Seldon wrote: >> "Jim Stewart" <jstewart(a)jkmicro.com> wrote in message news:hm95r1$2m >>6$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... >>> Peter Seldon wrote: >>> >>>> Maybe if Zilog's management wasn't so incompetant, they wouldn't >>>>have crashed the company the way they did. >>> Do you mean this time or over the last 30 years? >> Past 5 or 6 years. Which CEO said "we are getting out of the >>microcontroller buisness"? And I can't remember when they last >>introduced a new 8bit part. > >Someone should write a book about Zilog. The Z80 >was a remarkable part and, along with it's peripheral >chips, highly successful. After they failed to >deliver the Z800, I pretty much gave them up. I'd >like to know how it comes about that a company can >produce an excellent product line then fail 100% >to follow through. Read In search of Stupidity.... http://www.insearchofstupidity.com Not specifically about Zilog but it is about the Sw /IT /Computing industry and the complete mess some companies made of a sure fire success. The premise is the top dogs are not the top because they are good but that they made fewer obvious mistakes. -- \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ \/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills Staffs England /\/\/\/\/ \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/
From: Dombo on 27 Feb 2010 09:03
Chris H schreef: > In message <hm9qpe$6pb$1(a)news.eternal-september.org>, Jim Stewart > <jstewart(a)jkmicro.com> writes >> Peter Seldon wrote: >>> "Jim Stewart" <jstewart(a)jkmicro.com> wrote in message news:hm95r1$2m >>> 6$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... >>>> Peter Seldon wrote: >>>> >>>>> Maybe if Zilog's management wasn't so incompetant, they wouldn't >>>>> have crashed the company the way they did. >>>> Do you mean this time or over the last 30 years? >>> Past 5 or 6 years. Which CEO said "we are getting out of the >>> microcontroller buisness"? And I can't remember when they last >>> introduced a new 8bit part. >> Someone should write a book about Zilog. The Z80 >> was a remarkable part and, along with it's peripheral >> chips, highly successful. After they failed to >> deliver the Z800, I pretty much gave them up. I'd >> like to know how it comes about that a company can >> produce an excellent product line then fail 100% >> to follow through. > > Read In search of Stupidity.... > > http://www.insearchofstupidity.com > > Not specifically about Zilog but it is about the Sw /IT /Computing > industry and the complete mess some companies made of a sure fire > success. > > The premise is the top dogs are not the top because they are good but > that they made fewer obvious mistakes. Another interesting read about this subject is "On the Edge: the Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore". |