Reason For The Failure
The Z800 was, in most ways, a mini computer inspired "super Z80" that would run existing, and larger, programs at considerably higher speeds. However the address and data buses were multiplexed and the chip was, also in other respects, somewhat complicated to program and interface to. Calculation of exact execution times was also very much harder to do than for the Z80. Moreover, the plain Z80 were good enough for most applications at the time so the extra computing power was, in many cases, not worth the added complexity. Bad marketing seems to have hurt the product as well. Hitachi developed the HD64180, which is a less ambitious Z80 derivative that has had great success, probably because it is almost as simple to program and interface to as the original Z80. A slightly different variant of the same design, the Z180, has been sold by Zilog for over twenty years, still maintained and developed.
Read more about this topic: Zilog Z800
Famous quotes containing the words reason for, reason and/or failure:
“From my experience with wild apples, I can understand that there may be reason for a savage’s preferring many kinds of food which the civilized man rejects. The former has the palate of an outdoor man. It takes a savage or wild taste to appreciate a wild fruit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“He is not to pass for a man of reason who stumbles upon reason by chance—but he who knows it and can judge it and has a true taste for it.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“Every failure teaches a man something, to wit, that he will probably fail again next time.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)