Sensations - ZILOG has kept its promise to release an improved version of the famous Z80 processor.

Psychoz #04
(c) Компьютерра #39
(i) Ice'Di/Triumph
(i) Alpha Art


                                                                
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 Реинкарнация Z80
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    Компания      ZILOG      сдержала     обещание     выпустить
усовершенствованную   версию   знаменитого  процессора  Z80.  20
сентября  анонсировано  семейство микропроцессоров eZ80 Internet
Engine.

    ZILOG  полностью  сохранила его совместимость с Z80, добавив
функции DSP, поддержку оптимизированного стека TCP/IP и линейную
адресацию  16  Мбайт  оперативной  памяти.  При  той же тактовой
частоте  eZ80  в  четыре  раза  быстрее  своего предшественника,
благодаря  выполнению  большинства  инструкций  за один машинный
цикл. Особо отмечается оригинальный подход к проектированию ядраmicroprocessor (the so-called synthesizable core), which
allows, if necessary, to arrange the production of eZ80 according to any
technologies from 0.5 to 0.18 microns.



    The first members of the eZ80 family will go on sale in
early 2000.  Price for 8-bit version (planned release
also 16 and 32-bit models) will range from 3 to 10 dollars per
depending on the configuration.    The new processor will be
used in a variety of embedded systems,
Internet set-top boxes, and of course in Sinclair ;)



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 AMIGA in the darkness
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    The Gateway company, which was planning to revive the platform
Amiga, in all its glory, abandoned its plans.  B
official letter on the website www.amiga.com PresidentAmiga division Tom Schmidt reported that
the division is being restructured into a purely software company.
From now on, it will only deal with application development for
various Internet set-top boxes.

    The president’s letter, in particular, says: “After the shift
guides at Amiga, we have revised our release plans
products. July plans to release MCC (Multimedia Convergence
Computer - code name for the future computer) were
unrealistic.  Moreover, I finally decided that it was better
will cooperate with a large number of manufacturing partners
hardware than to exhibit your product,
competing with everyone>.



    In his letter, Schmidt asks a rhetorical question, as if
sides: 

    It cannot be said that such a statement would please
a small but persistent army of Amiga supporters. Last
a ray of light came to them in July when Gateway announced that
is about to release MCC.  But the sudden departure of the Amiga president
Jim Collas shuffled all the cards again.


    However, hope dies last:  Transmeta CEO David Ditzel said that
the company had no agreements with Amiga, much less
no one was going to make a processor for this console. Occasion
the rumors were most likely due to participation in the fate of the Amiga
one of Transmeta's employees Linus Torvalds (yep, that one
himself), who approved the ideausing Linux as a base
OS for Amiga.



    However, now that plans to revive the Amiga have become
history, it doesn’t matter anymore.  What a pity... Good luck
a designed system with as rich a past as the Amiga,
I could show everyone on Playstation and Dreamcast where the crayfish are
spend the winter. Not fate, however...

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