Zilog returns to Z8 territory with 8-bit update

The company which was established in 1974, by the designer of Intel's 4004 processor, Federico Faggin, was facing bankruptcy around three years ago when the new management team decided to dump its communications product line and go back to what it is best known for.

It's now listed on the NASDAQ, has begun moving towards a fabless chip-making model and is enjoying its 30th anniversary.

And the management team is engaged on a short world tour to promote its new products, the Z8 Encore! XP family of 8-bit microcontrollers. We managed to catch up with company president Mike Burger at a swanky London address next to Buckingham Palace.

Burger is one of the gang of four that stepped in to take over the reins of the company in 2001, following the resignation of then-CEO Curtis Crawford. He says the Zilog brand, having "top five" recognition in the 8-bit space, was what made the company attractive.

The team couldn't stop the company seeking chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2001 however. It was time for painful decisions, but Burger puts that all behind him now, claiming the company has been profitable for its last 10 quarters.

"I was actually educated on the Z80," Burger told the INQUIRER. He claims the Z8 and Z80 architectures still have a "huge following" of design engineers. Yet the architecture has barely been expanded in 30 years. The market is huge, he says - worth around $4.3billion annually and growing at around 7.5 percent.

Along with the Z80 Encore! XP processors, the company is offering a complete development suite including its own C-compiler to developers for less than $40. He suggests there are over 100,000 embedded chip designers "out there" and that Zilog from shipping 2000 development tools in 2001, shipped 13,000 last year. The new development kit is offered as "an enabler for our community," representing a, "low barrier to entry," he said.

The new Z8 family of microcontrollers are scalable and cover program memory sizes from 1KB to 64KB. It uses Zilog's register-to-register-based architecture and features an 8-channel, 10-bit Sigma Delta A/D converter. The use of this converter means the Encore A/D doesn't require halting the processor to get the full 10-bit accuracy, the company claims. Additionally integrated into the design are features such as an on-chip-precision internal oscillator, non-volatile data storage memory, and large working memory. These, the company says, help the Z8 Encore! "perform favorably versus competing solutions."

Burger says the Z8 Encore! XP appears in general-purpose applications like thermostats, smoke/CO detectors and white goods, but is, "well suited for other applications, including security, consumer markets and hand-held medical devices."

The new devices are available now, and sell for $0.89 for a 1KB device in 20-pin SOIC and $1.44 for a 4KB device in 28-pin SOIC, each in 10K quantities. µ

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Frederico Faggin and the 4004
Zilog.com
Z80 Fanboys