CAMPBELL, Calif. -- The venerable Z80 8-bit microprocessor may find a whole new life on the Internet, as Zilog Inc. here today announced the eZ80 Internet Engine, a line of embedded solutions built on the Z80 core to deliver embedded access to the Internet and a migration path for existing Z80-based customers.
The company will license the eZ80 core, beginning in November, to unify the highly fragmented Z80 market under a new "Zilog Certified" eZ80 industry standard.
"The embedded Internet is the communications medium of the next generation, connecting capabilities around the world," said Curtis J. Crawford, Zilog's president, CEO and chairman. "At Zilog, we're committed to delivering embedded solutions that allow our customers to take advantage of technology's opportunities."
Applications for the eZ80 range from Internet electronic transactions to industrial control remote management, he said.
According to Will Strauss, president of market research firm Forward Concepts in Tempe, Ariz., "The new Zilog has shown real innovation in designing the eZ80. It enhances the value of the extensive installed Z80 base by providing a step-jump increase in performance for OEMs, enabling them to expand on their existing Z80 expertise for new product designs. What's more, the eZ80 provides extensive new features which makes it a natural for next-decade Internet appliances."
The eZ80 the company's expertise in digital signal processing (DSP), modem and high-speed serial communications. It delivered single-chip microprocessor and DSP capabilities, allowing customers to take advantage of the new Web economy by developing devices that are ready to connect to the Internet. Until now, MPU and DSP functions have been only available as separate chips and were often too expensive to deploy.
The eZ80's single-chip solutions will feature an optimized TCP/IP stack, linear addressing that supports up to 16 megabytes of addressing space, and DSP capabilities. While a typical TCP/IP implementation requires 250 kilobytes of main memory, Zilog's Internet Engine requires just 64 Kbytes.
As part of its comprehensive eZ80 strategy, Zilog will establish and maintain a new Zilog-endorsed Z80 standard based on its enhanced eZ80 technology, unifying a market with an installed base of hundred millions of Z80s and lines of code.
"Our eZ80 Internet Engine will unify the highly fragmented Z80 market by delivering scalable products, a licensing program, a certification program and an organizational structure to maintain Zilog's Z80 standard," said Didier Le Lannic, senior vice president and general manager of Zilog's Communications Division. "Today we can count at least 30 Z80 manufacturers, of which we estimate that half have developed their own derivative products that ultimately became non-compatible with the original Z80. End customers become locked into a supplier with a limited or nonexistent roadmap."
The eZ80 will reestablish compatibility, Le Lannic said. As a synthesizable core, the eZ80 allows rapid porting to any process geometry -- 0.50, 0.35, 0.25, or 0.18 micron.
The 8-bit version of the eZ80 family will be priced from $3 to $10 based on configuration. The first product will begin shipping in early 2000.
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