Zilog Sells Off Two Product Lines
Bill Giovino
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:
http://www.microcontroller.com/news/Zilog_Sells_Crimzon_Zatara.asp
- Bill Giovino
Executive Editor
http://Microcontroller.com
-jg
wrote:
- but they are keeping their Crimzon Connects product offering
"With its built-in wireless and wired connectivity interfaces, Crimzon
Connects™ 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
Frank Buss
> 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:
>
> http://www.microcontroller.com/news/Zilog_Sells_Crimzon_Zatara.asp
The image you've copied from Wikipedia:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Z84C0010FEC_LQFP.png
is not an original Z80, but a modern version of the Z80. This is an
original Z80:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Zilog_Z8400APS.jpg
It's a pity that the managment wants to sell off the company.
--
Frank Buss, f...@frank-buss.de
http://www.frank-buss.de, http://www.it4-systems.de
-jg
> 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
Frank Buss
> 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.
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.
Todd Washington
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
"Frank Buss" <f...@frank-buss.de> wrote in message
news:2ph1lc3blxji.9...@40tude.net...
Frank Buss
> 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?
Are you kidding? What about Commodore and MOSTEK, with the nice 6510, 6581
and 6569?
-jg
> 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.
>
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 ?
> 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.
Depends where it is in the release cycle.
> 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?
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
Eric Smith
> Are you kidding? What about Commodore and MOSTEK, with the nice 6510, 6581
> and 6569?
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.
Frank Buss
> 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 ( http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/726097/Apple-I )
Rafael Deliano
> Mostek 6502 ( http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/726097/Apple-I )
/ Technology), and used it to design a
Young "Steve Jobs: The Journey Is the Reward" Scott Foresman 1987
http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Jobs-Jeffrey-S-Young/dp/0673188647
( good book ) has the same Mostek/MOS-Tech mixup. Probably due to
transcript of audiotapes done during the interviews for the book.
I think Mostek did Z80.
MfG JRD
CBFalconer
>
... snip ...
>
> I think Mostek did Z80.
I think Zilog did the Z80.
--
[mail]: Chuck F (cbfalconer at maineline dot net)
[page]: <http://cbfalconer.home.att.net>
Try the download section.
Eric Smith
>> 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.
Frank Buss wrote:
> You are right, maybe I mixed this up, because looks like the CPU was called
> Mostek 6502 ( http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/726097/Apple-I )
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.
Eric Smith
> I think Mostek did Z80.
CBFalconer wrote:
> I think Zilog did the Z80.
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.