Today, Zilog announced that they have sold off two of their microcontroller product lines and related software to other companies.
Their 8-bit Crimzon remote control microcontrollers and their 32-bit Zatara secure transaction microcontrollers were sold off to Maxim and UEI in a curious transaction:
- Bill Giovino Executive Editor
er product
ra secure
transaction:
- but they are keeping their Crimzon Connects product offering
"With its built-in wireless and wired connectivity interfaces, Crimzon Connects=99 makes it easy to remotely access and control your home or office electronic devices from any WiFi enabled device, such as a laptop, smart phone or intelligent connected remote control."
"Zilog will retain its classic and flash microcontroller business and Crimzon Connects"
No sign of their planned Cortex Variants either.... ( I think they are still in the Zilog stable? )
-jg
product
secure
transaction:
The image you've copied from Wikipedia:
is not an original Z80, but a modern version of the Z80. This is an original Z80:
It's a pity that the managment wants to sell off the company.
They are selling only SOME product lines (and not the Z80). It is an unusual carve-up : Pruning off a very old product line, and a very new product line, both are Microntrollers/Microprocessors, as are the lines left behind.
No mention of what happens to the supposed Cortex models coming - maybe they failed to get out of the LABS ?
-jg
The article says "Billerbeck [Zilog CEO] complained that as he sought out interested buyers of Zilog IP, 'nobody looked at the whole Zilog'" so it is just by accident what they sell. For me it sounds like they would sell the whole company, if there were be a buyer. Or maybe they want change the company to a consumer article company. But I wonder how they would achieve this without a design engineering team.
It's public that Billerbeck gets a big huge fat obscene wad of cash if he sells Zilog. In the meantime all new product development at that poor company is over forever. It's so depressing for former employees. He is deliberately starving the compnay to crash its worth so he can sell cheap and get the f**k out. He will go down in history as a cold man who killed Zilog with extreme prejudice. I'll bet he spends his day sitting at his desk playing solitaire and waiting for the phone to ring.
They plan to make Cortexes BUT they do not have the QC engineers to test them (laid off) so it's going to be very buggy.
Will this be the very first time in semiconductor history that a major 8-bit microcontroller manufacturer went out of business? I don't think this happened before. is it?
tw
before.
Are you kidding? What about Commodore and MOSTEK, with the nice 6510, 6581 and 6569?
sells Zilog.
forever. It's
ay to crash its
ry as a cold
itting at his
Tell us what you really think ? ;)
I will say their newest web site is appalling!!. Packaged Corporate fluff at the worst :(
You would have no idea they were a Chip Supplier, or that Embedded engineers were their customer base. What are they thinking ?
them (laid off)
Depends where it is in the release cycle.
bit
pened before.
Depends on how you measure "major 8-bit microcontroller manufacturer".
Zilog certainly are a pioneer, and they did seem to survive the transistion to Flash, and have what looks like a 'critical mass' family of devices.
Some 8 bit Microcontroller product lines have failed: NatSemi with their 8 bit Microcontroller families, and TI pruned their TMS370 core, (tho both Natsemi and TI are still in business, of course).
Not sure if any fabs still make 8748s' ?
-jg
You must mean "MOS Technology". MOSTEK never made 65xx family microprocessors and peripherals, and they didn't go out of busines, though they were acquired.
You are right, maybe I mixed this up, because looks like the CPU was called Mostek 6502 (
/ one of the early microprocessors, the Mostek 6502 (made by MOS / Technology), and used it to design a Young "Steve Jobs: The Journey Is the Reward" Scott Foresman 1987
MfG JRD
... snip ...
I think Zilog did the Z80.
-- [mail]: Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net) [page]: Try the download section.
Britannica is wrong, and Wikipedia is right. It was a MOS Technology 6502, Mostek had nothing to do with it. Mostek second-sourced the Fairchild F8 and Zilog Z80, and developed the 3870, which was a single-chip micro based on the F8. Mostek never made the 6502 or related parts.
Sigh.
Depends on what we mean by "did". Zilog certainly designed the Z80, but IIRC Mostek was the first to fabricate it, before Zilog had their own fab.
Anyhow, the point Rafael was making was that Mostek made Z80 family parts, and did not make any 6502 family parts.
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