Zilog Z80 discontinued after nearly 50 years

[Steve Simpkin]

(05-31-2024 10:04 PM)pascal_meheut Wrote:  

(05-31-2024 09:39 PM)Siegfried Wrote:  Does that mean the 6502 won? ;-)

It always did on so many levels :-)

In the book; The Story of Commodore: A Company on the Edge by Brian Bagnall, Chuck Peddle, the lead designer of the 6502 microprocessor, describes his intent for this device:

In a delicious irony, he did not design the microprocessor for computers. “It was never intended to be a computer device. Never in a million years,” he reveals. Instead, he envisioned a microcontroller for cash registers, home electronics, home appliances, automobiles, and industrial machines—just about everywhere except personal computers. “If we were going to do a computer, we would have done something else.”
“The 6502 was never, and I mean never, talked about as being a CPU (Central Processing Unit) for a computing system,” says Bill Mensch. “The instruction set was picked for controllers. In other words, the controller instruction set was designed specifically to compete with the Intel 4040, which was a two- or three-chip-system solution.”