Z80

History

The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor developed by Zilog and introduced in 1976. It was designed by Federico Faggin, who previously worked on the Intel 4004 and 8080 processors. The Z80 was widely used in early personal computers, embedded systems, and various other applications due to its enhanced features and compatibility with the Intel 8080.

Features

8-bit architecture: Processes 8 bits of data at a time.
16-bit address bus: Can address up to 64 KB of memory.
Enhanced instruction set: Includes all 8080 instructions plus additional ones.
Multiple registers: Features a rich set of registers, including two sets of general-purpose registers.
Built-in refresh circuitry: Supports dynamic RAM refresh.
Single 5V power supply: Simplifies power requirements.

Example Code

Here is a simple Z80 assembly program to add two numbers:

; Simple Z80 assembly program to add two numbers
LD A, 01H    ; Load the value 1 into the accumulator
ADD A, 02H   ; Add the value 2 to the accumulator
LD (2000H), A ; Store the result in memory location 2000H
HALT         ; Halt the processor

This code loads the value 1 into the accumulator, adds the value 2 to it, stores the result in memory location 2000H, and then halts the processor.

Last modified: 14 December 2024