[Coco] Z80 discontinued (after nearly 50 years on the market)

[farna at amc-mag.com]

Date: Sat, 20 Apr 2024 23:51:39 +0000
 From: John Guin <johnguin at hotmail.com>

https://www.mouser.com/PCN/Littelfuse_PCN_Z84C00.pdf

Slash reports this chip was made for 48 years. Wow.  Not bad for an 8 
bit CPU!
John
========================================================

Is the Z84C00 the only Z80 variant still produced? Apparently so, but 
there is a "successor" chip that is similar.

"Zilog will accept orders for the device until June 14, 2024. After 
that, it's the end for the eight-bit CPU – or at least the ZC8400 range. 
Zilog appears to still make the Z180 and eZ80 – successors that added 
lots of whistles and bells and are often packaged into SoCs." 
(https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/22/z80_cpu_end_of_sales/)

Found this concerning the eZ80: 
https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13458&start=0
It's a square LQFP-100 package, though there are some 40 pin DIP 
packages for microcontroller variants. Supposed to be binary compatible 
with the Z80, but three times as fast (not clock speed, internal 
architecture). So building a new board and cloning/emulating an old Z80 
system will still be possible. I wonder if anyone else is making a 
compatible Z80 clone in the original packaging? A couple other companies 
did produce them, but they were probably dropped long ago...

-- 
Frank Swygert
Fix-It-Frank Handyman Services
E-mail: farna at att.net
Phone: 803-604-6548