[net.micro] z80,000

tim@nmtvax.UUCP (07/14/83)

    I just read a short article in Electronics magazine discribing Zilog's
new full 32bit microprocessor.  It sounds interesting but at the same time
I wonder why zilog is adding so many options to the chip.  For instance, you
have a choice of four addressing sceams (short 16bit, 2 segmented types, and
4gigbyte linear).  These are software selectable from the impression I got.
They claim the processor will have a 1.3 million instruction per second
throughput, and include floating point instructions and memory (page) 
management on chip.

guy@rlgvax.UUCP (Guy Harris) (07/17/83)

I suspect Zilog supports 16-bit pointers, two kinds of segmented pointers,
and long non-segmented pointers for backward compatibility with the Z8000.
The Z8000 supports 16-bit pointers in all versions and segmented pointers
(24-bit) in the segmented versions - these are real long pointers and don't
require the program to play strange games with segment registers, unlike
some other micros.

	Guy Harris
	{seismo,mcnc,we13,brl-bmd,allegra}!rlgvax!guy