Tom Jennings, the creator of fidenet, is producing a nice modern Z80 computer[0]

0. https://www.ebay.ie/itm/206496219323

Due to its simplicity it's a fun little processor to program. Hacking on some assembly on a ZX spectrum emulator is a nice way to stay sane in this high abstraction LLM age.

My first ambitious project was a Z80 assembler. The Z8000 (much later) was distinguished by being the last random-logic (not microcoded) microprocessor of it's day.

> Then, as a young engineer, I worked in a large mainframe computer system based on Z80.

This sentence threw me a little bit. Which mainframes were based on the Z80? I'd love to know more about that.

Reminded me good old days.. games loaded from cassette recorder and my first program for Spectrum which was a simple drawing tool I proudly called "graphic editor" :)

Ironically (and sadly) the Z80 was discontinued not very long after this piece was published.

Interesting interview with Frederico Faggin on of the two designers of the z80 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=28JtL1WVjMw

interesting to be reminded that an 8080 (8 bit datapath) took 4,800 transistors

an Apple M5 Max is 100,000,000,000 transistors (ok it’s 18 CPU + 40 GPU cores) by comparison so 17 million 8080 equivalents

The inventor of the Z80 Fredrico Faggin is promoting a consciousness first universe now

https://youtu.be/-vz5LU2ECm0?is=g1T-QM8Lq9qNyiNK

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A paragrap from the linked articale

Z80 was the choice of a microprocessor for then home computers such as Radio Shack TRS-80, SORD M23P, M5, Sinclair ZX81, ZX Spectrum, KayPro II, and many other manufacturers.3 It was capable of running the CP/M operating system in most Z80-based PCs. Z80 had a reasonable share in the PC market until Intel revealed its 16-bit microprocessor in the mid-1980s. Z80 was very popular as a microprocessor not only in PC applications, but also in industrial embedded applications, and some of the big manufacturers have Z80 core inside their ASIC chips still today or use enhanced versions of Z80 in consumer electronic devices.4–7 Zilog still manufactures ez80, an enhanced version of the original Z80, which is still being used by Texas Instruments in its TI-84 and TI-84 Plus calculators.7 It is among the few silicon chips that made a remarkable impact on the electronic device industry.8 To this day, Zilog produces a range of Z80-based microprocessors and intelligent peripheral controllers, and they are available from reputed electronics component suppliers.2,9,10 This microprocessor is one of the longest living microprocessors of all time.