45th birthday

[Neil Harrison]

No, not my 45th birthday (I wish), but this week my venerable 2.5MHz Z80 CPU turns 45. Manufactured in week 34 of 1976 it was the first CPU I ever bought and became the basis of a hand built computer mostly based on an article in BYTE magazine published around the same time.  In many ways that little Z80 influenced my entire life, since through the experience I gained and the contacts I made while building and expanding that system I ended up with a hardware design job that set the direction for the rest of my working life. Over the years, so much computer hardware has passed through my hands, (much that I now regret throwing away!) but I am so glad that I held on to my beautiful white ceramic Z80.

[Sergey Kiselev]

Neil,

Happy birthday to your Z80! It is a few months older than me - manufactured week 52 of 1976 :-)

Despite me being younger, Z80 influenced my life quite a bit, about as much as 8080 and 8086, and has a special place in my heart as an elegant, easy to use CPU. One of the first computers I worked on was a beautiful MSX2, based on Z80, together with Olivetti M24 (8086 based) and soviet 8080 clone based Radio-86RK.

I also regret that I didn't save my first computer or processor I ever purchased. To my excuse, I moved through a few countries, and an antiquated hardware wasn't on the top list of priorities to go in my luggage...

It wasn't until 2009 when I actually purchased a Z80 (CMOS Z84C0006PEC to be exact). Since then I purchased a hundred or more of them to be distributed with my projects/kits :-)

Thanks,

Sergey