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Dr. Bernard Peuto, the mind behind Zilog's Z8000 and Z8 processors, passed away this month, and the Electronic Engineering Journal just posted a writeup on his history with Zilog. Just before the wild success Zilog Z80, the company hired Dr. Pueto as their twelfth employee in early 1976. With mainframe experience under his belt, the report says he quickly went to work on Zilog's 16 bit designs, but the company faced stiff competition from Motorola and Intel. Far more than a simple obituary, the article is a dive into the history of Zilog and their contemporary competitors, and is definitely worth a read. Thanks to cageymaru for the tip.
Despite all of these acquisitions, Littlefuse/Zilog still sells versions of Dr. Peuto's Z8000 and Z8 processors. The Z8 microcontroller was reborn in the early 2000s as the enhanced Z8 Encore! and the Z8 Encore! XP Flash-based microcontroller families. Meanwhile, the 40-pin and 48-pin versions of the Z8000 microprocessor are still available as the Z16C02 and Z16C01, although perhaps not for too much longer, as you really need to dig deep into the Littlefuse/IXYS/Zilog site to find these parts. (Actually, I let Google dig into it.) Part of Dr. Peuto's significant technical legacy is deeply rooted in the Z8000 and Z8 processor architectures. Another part is tied to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California where Dr. Peuto served as a trustee for 17 years. He was also a member of the museum's executive and finance committees. As a result of that work, he was named a Trustee Emeritus in 2017. That's not a bad legacy to leave, my friends.
Despite all of these acquisitions, Littlefuse/Zilog still sells versions of Dr. Peuto's Z8000 and Z8 processors. The Z8 microcontroller was reborn in the early 2000s as the enhanced Z8 Encore! and the Z8 Encore! XP Flash-based microcontroller families. Meanwhile, the 40-pin and 48-pin versions of the Z8000 microprocessor are still available as the Z16C02 and Z16C01, although perhaps not for too much longer, as you really need to dig deep into the Littlefuse/IXYS/Zilog site to find these parts. (Actually, I let Google dig into it.) Part of Dr. Peuto's significant technical legacy is deeply rooted in the Z8000 and Z8 processor architectures. Another part is tied to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California where Dr. Peuto served as a trustee for 17 years. He was also a member of the museum's executive and finance committees. As a result of that work, he was named a Trustee Emeritus in 2017. That's not a bad legacy to leave, my friends.
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