Zilog Introduces 8051 Microcontrollers

http://www.microcontroller.com/news/Zilog_Z8051.asp

Zilog shows us all that the 8051 will never, ever die. Ever.

Big Z has some nice parts - 100nA sleep current, EEPROM, and a single-cycle multiply.

Article shows a selection guide for the new parts.

Bill Giovino
http://Microcontroller.com

"Bill Giovino" <> wrote in message
news: ...
> http://www.microcontroller.com/news/Zilog_Z8051.asp
>
> Zilog shows us all that the 8051 will never, ever die. Ever.
>
> Big Z has some nice parts - 100nA sleep current, EEPROM, and a
> single-cycle multiply.
>
> Article shows a selection guide for the new parts.

I wonder who'll buy that :-)

On 2012-02-29, Bill Giovino <> wrote:

> http://www.microcontroller.com/news/Zilog_Z8051.asp
>
> Zilog shows us all that the 8051 will never, ever die. Ever.

Sheesh.

I admit that compared to the 8048, the 8051 was a breath of fresh air
and a joy to use. But, that was THIRTY YEARS AGO. There have been
dozens of far better, easier to use, MCU architectures since then.
For eample, the MSP430 for low-end, ARM Cortex for the mid-range, and
an number of ARM/PPC/68K derivitives at the high end.

--
Grant Edwards grant.b.edwards Yow! I just remembered
at something about a TOAD!
gmail.com

"Bill Giovino" wrote in message
news: ...
>
> http://www.microcontroller.com/news/Zilog_Z8051.asp
>
> Zilog shows us all that the 8051 will never, ever die. Ever.
>
> Big Z has some nice parts - 100nA sleep current, EEPROM, and a
> single-cycle multiply.

I have to admit I've got a bit of a special place in my heart for the 8051.
It's so thoroughly the opposite of orthogonal that you really had to pay
attention to get the best out of it. Special memory locations, limited
memory capacity, limited clock cycles, special registers, special I/O,
special instructions. Yeah! But that "best" could be very good indeed when
you went to the trouble.

At the same time I was doing 8051 work on the older product line I was also
working with the Cold Fire (very similar to the 68000). What an amazing
contrast.

I can't think of an application I'd design an 8051 into, but fond memories
of hard but interesting work.

- Bill

On Thursday, March 1, 2012 12:28:10 PM UTC+13, Bill Giovino wrote:
> http://www.microcontroller.com/news/Zilog_Z8051.asp
>
> Zilog shows us all that the 8051 will never, ever die. Ever.

It is interesting, but more interesting is where the silicon actually comes from, and whose devices Zilog is re-badging here.

-jg

<> wrote...
> On Thursday, March 1, 2012 12:28:10 PM UTC+13, Bill Giovino wrote:
>> http://www.microcontroller.com/news/Zilog_Z8051.asp
>>
>> Zilog shows us all that the 8051 will never, ever die. Ever.
>
> It is interesting, but more interesting is where the silicon actually comes from, and
> whose devices Zilog is re-badging here.
>
> -jg
>

Mentor developed the low-power 8051 IP for Zilog. No re-badging.

Bill Giovino
http://Microcontroller.com

On Saturday, March 3, 2012 10:39:10 AM UTC+13, Bill Giovino wrote:
> Mentor developed the low-power 8051 IP for Zilog. No re-badging.
>

Really? Who told you that ?

Have you looked at the device siblings, and how they are not quite common across all variants, but are clones (down to the quaint english) of someone else's parts ?

-jg

<> wrote...
> On Saturday, March 3, 2012 10:39:10 AM UTC+13, Bill Giovino wrote:
>> Mentor developed the low-power 8051 IP for Zilog. No re-badging.
>>
>
> Really? Who told you that ?
>
> Have you looked at the device siblings, and how they are not quite common across all
> variants, but are clones (down to the quaint english) of someone else's parts ?
>

Nobody writes 8051 documentation from scratch. Even STC's 8051 datasheets are copies of
competitor datasheets, which themselves are copies of others. And Mentor sells their
8051 IP (and documentation) to many customers.

On Sunday, March 4, 2012 4:58:22 PM UTC+13, Bill Giovino wrote:
> >
> > Really? Who told you that ?
> >
> > Have you looked at the device siblings, and how they are not quite common across all
> > variants, but are clones (down to the quaint english) of someone else's parts ?
> >
>
> Nobody writes 8051 documentation from scratch. Even STC's 8051 datasheets are copies of
> competitor datasheets, which themselves are copies of others. And Mentor sells their
> 8051 IP (and documentation) to many customers.

You have not answered the question, merely deflected.

Q: Who claimed Zilog's Silicon is their own, and what were their exact words ?

I've given you a News Lead, dig a little - and this info is all in the public domain, you do not need a NDA. It helps tho, to understand the details.

-jg

Zilog told me their chip used Mentor IP. It seems that Zilog is not the only company
using the same IP. Zilog may have made a deal to use documentation from a company using
the same IP until they can put together their own.