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Why the Z80 processor was so important

It was 50 years ago this month that Zilog released the Z80 microprocessor.

Oh well, I guess there's nothing like a birthday to make you feel old!

Although the 4004, the 8080 and the 8086/8088 get most of the headline coverage as "the most important processors ever made", my vote has to go to the Z80.

This is because, in those early days, just about every non-Apple, non-Commodore, non-Atari 8-bit computer was based on the Z80. These processors were everywhere, in machines from the ZX80/81 and spectrum, TRS80, the Osborne 1, the Epson QX-10 and the myriad of S100 CP/M systems that were the cornerstone of the hobby and small business market of the day.

Without the Z80 and its backwards compatibility with Intel's 8080/8085, I don't think we'd have seen the microcomputer progress at the rate it did during the 1970s and early 1980s.

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Damn, why is it so hard to keep any reliable forum capability going these days?

I'll be working to get the forums up again but it seems that it might not be a simple task. The hosting company has obviously changed something but now it's up to me to try and get PHPBB working with their new configuration :-/

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