Intel’s worst Nightmare

The inventor of the microprocessor goes rouge leaves Intel to create his dream product.

#Zilog #z80 #FedericoFaggin

0:00 Intro
0:25 The invention of the Microprocessor
3:37 Birth of Zilog
6:41 The legendary Z80
10:05 Copycat traps
12:49 Exxon strikes

Events slightly adjusted or exaggerated for narrative (or dramatic) purpose.

Sources:

Credits

Research and Writing: LowSpecAlex
Voice over: LowSpecAlex
Editing: Henrique von Buren, LowSpecAlex
3D animation: Windy
Art: Maiku no Koe
Spanish Translation, Audio editing and QA: Henrique von Buren
Camera work: Victor Candela, LowSpecAlex
Thumbnail design: The Tales Foundry

Social media:

Stock Footage from Getty

[Treblaine]

Japanese boss: [shouts at employee]
Italian worker: [shouts back]
Japanese boss: "Wait, you can do that?"

[genpan]

Italian college student here, we studied the history of Intel and Zylog's first microprocessor in class and it was so awesome to learn that an italian engineer made such a big impact on computers' history!

[Errcyco]

My grandfather, Richard Moore, was the CTO at Zilog and worked on the Z80 project. He was my best friend and the smartest person I’ve ever met, he was my hero I’m so proud of him n

[nicholashacking]

I'm not an IT professional, simply someone who was curious when home computers started to become affordable, and I learnt Z80 assembler to get my Sharp MZ700 to do things that BASIC and Pascal wouldn't allow. Insights into Z80 assembler made C easy to learn subsequently. Anyway, the point of my post is that I own an Onxy C8002. It's a Z8002 (yes, 16 bit) based computer which runs Unix and, the last time that I fired it up anyway, is still running.
I should probably donate it to a computer museum for the benefit of posterity.
Although I'm only a home bodger, I do feel very attached to Zilog, and I loved this. Thank you.

[Wbfuhn]

A guy who can run the entire process logic in his head is a brilliant man. It's not impossible but it requires a lot of thinking power.

[dan_loup]

The Z80 has a MUCH better assembler than the 8080.
Both processors are binary compatible (except for all the extended Z80 instructions), but to actually program to the CPU in a sane way, you have to use an assembler software that converts the opcode names to the numbers the CPUs actually understand, and the ZiLOG nomeclature for the instructions etc is a lot better.

[SamIverson]

I never comment on anything but I must say that the tech space on youtube is missing these kinds of videos. I really hope that they're rewarding for you to make. Even if they require significantly more effort to make than normal videos and bring less views, I still think they're extremely worth it in the long term. Keep going!

[fpgaguy]

I designed a lot of things with Z80's back in the day - but never knew this story - thank you so much for filling in some of these details I never heard

[ridwananhar]

Oh Z80, what a hard processor to use you are. I remember 2 years ago in highschool, my teacher gave us 5 dictionary sized computer and 50 pages of " Zilog Z80 Programming book ". It took us almost an hour just to fix one calculation error.

[Games-txzc]

Oh hell yeah. Huge fan of this chip. The z80 is iconic.

[JGreen-lexx]

To me, the real head to head for 8-bit supremacy was always Z80 vs MOS 6502. The real "tiny" GIANTS of that era.

[AccidentalScience]

Fun fact. Federico Faggin comes from the very north of Italy, a whole other kind of Italians (much closer to Austrians), and at the time he moved to the US pizza was unknown there. Being grown up not that far from there, I am not surprised at all by his reaction in Intel and then at Zilog. People from that area, while in general pretty smart, are also incredibly stubborn and with a strong self-reliant self-making mindset. As a side note, the surname should be pronounced Fah-gin, but I don't know if over the time he got used with an americanized version of his surname.
Thank you for having brought up this interesting story.

[hblaub]

The Z80 found its way into various low-cost devices I used, like in a calculator or a PDA. For poor folks, it was an entry into the mighty computer world.

[Baseless_]

Long time watcher, rare if ever commenter. This new style of video is AWESOME, I know that it has negatively impacted your viewership but they are really well written and beautifully illustrated. I always look forward to your videos :D

[Omegapork]

These videos just keep getting better and better, your presentation style is so good!

[sergeboisse]

I always loved the Z80. In 1979 when I was 19, with a friend, we built a full computer around it. I programmed it using an hexadecimal keypad! It was a pure amateur thing, wired with wrapping, which made it difficult to work and even more to reproduce. So only one was built. Because of this, I hated x86. Later, I falled again in love with another microprocessor, Motorola 68000, for its extraordinary instruction set and assembly langage. When I finaly could buy my first TV-connected computer, (a Sinclair QL, built arround a 68008), I wrote an assembler program for it in Basic, which allowed me to run some experimental fun programs. Thank you so much for this Very nice video that reminds me of those early times !

[ashtonhaynes]

I remember programming in z80 assembly on my TI-83 Plus back in high school. Good times.

[GreatJoe]

I kept waiting for LGR's Clint to make a episode about this for his Tech Tales series back when that was going, but your coverage of these moments in tech history has turned out to be a lot more fun to watch. I look forward to seeing what you'll cover next. :D

[CZtuner]

I loved programming the Z-80 in assembler, back in the 1980's & 1990's. 256 main instructions + another 256 hidden instructions (CCh & CDh pages). By comparison, it made other processors seem cruse & limited.

[pablorages]

I remember doing machine code programming for the Z80 ... I can't imagine doing it with the latest processors