End-Of-Life For Z80 CPU And Peripherals Announced

In a product change notification (PCN) issued on April 15, Zilog (now owned by Littelfuse) announced the end of life of a Z80 product line, specifically almost the entire Z84C00 line. This also includes peripherals, such as the Z84C10 line of MPUs. These are currently already marked as EoL on stores like Mouser, with Littelfuse noting that last orders with them can be placed until June 14, 2024. After that, you’ll have to try your luck with shady eBay sellers and a lucky box of old-new stock found in the back of a warehouse.

This effectively means that just under 48 years after its 1976 launch, the Zilog Z80 will no longer be available for sale as discrete components, which will likely primarily affect hobbyists and people attempting to operate the systems retro. This doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road for the Z80, however, as the eZ80 will be produced for the foreseeable future.

These new chips will of course not be easy to fit into DIPs, which makes the challenge of building your own Z80-based microcomputer even more difficult. Yet one thing that definitely won’t happen is that we see the end of the Z80, 6502, and 8051 architecture era.

Thanks to (Techokami) for the advice.