Zilog, Inc., previously known as ZiLOG (which stands for "Z (the last word of) integrated logic"), is a manufacturer of 8-bit and 24-bit microcontrollers, and is most famous for the Intel 8080-compatible Z80 series.

The Z80 came about when Federico Faggin, after working on the 8080, left Intel at the end of 1974 to found Zilog with Ralph Ungermann, and by July 1976 they had the Z80 on the market

The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor, designed and sold by Zilog from July 1976 onwards. It was widely used both in desktop and embedded computer designs as well as for military purposes. The Z80 and its derivatives and clones make up one of the most commonly used CPU families of all time, and, along with the MOS Technology 6502 family, dominated the 8-bit microcomputer market from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s.

These were sold by Zilog in the late 1970s for Z80 development, based on their own bus architecture.

The MCZ systems were for software development and automation solutions. Several models existed for "desktop" use (like our 1/20 model) or rack mount systems. The high level model 1/35 even has a hard disc.

It used Zilog's own Z80-RIO Operating System, but with a different ROM resident Kernel. The disc format is Zilog proprietary; 8-inch hardsector discs, single sided, 32 sectors, 77 tracks, 132 Bytes per sector. (128 data bytes and 4 pointerbytes for linking physical sectors to logical files at OS level)

Our Zilog Z-80 together with many manuals is a model 05-6002-12 MCZ 1/20 60k PI and was very kindly donated by Mrs Rhelda Christie on behalf of her late father Robert Beech.

Manufacturer: Zilog
Date: 1978

This exhibit has a reference ID of CH12157. Please quote this reference ID in any communication with the Centre for Computing History.