Nope, not at all.

Jim, that is a great idea!! We've tried to make arrangements wth Zilog on this before, but no result. We've spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours, and hundreds of thousands of $$ getting the product developed, and we'd be glad to share back anything to Zilog that we change on our end.

What's weird is that the source code for 1.34 is based on Xinu originally - I think. Which was an open source project, at least at one time. Which is why its surprising that Zilog is so concerned about giving up the sources. Most of the time I think we're doing more with the ez80F91 than Zilog is.

It doesn't appear that they are doing ANYTHING with the ez80F91 anyway, it looks like a completely dead product. Look at this forum that Tom, bless his soul, is trying to hold together: We keep hearing about new products and new projects, we keep hearing corporate fluff about white papers and roadmaps - but everything is just seemingly dead around here.

It would be great to go back to 2004~2005 where we had new app notes, new code sources, new projects with Acclaim CPUS about every other day there for a while. Things were getting done, glitches were getting fixed and the customer support was fast and simple.

Now its just crickets around here. <Chirrup...Chirrup>

Gee, I think I'm talking to myself again...

Tom, any word on the sources??

John

I am working with the teams here to get you the source code. I know there are legal forms as well as other processes they have to take care of but you should be notified shortly about what you need to do to get it.

I would disagree that eZ80F91 is dead. I know there are other customers we are working with that are putting the F91 into their new designs. We did have a new app note on the eZ80F91 for AJAX web server. I agree the F91 does not get the attention that other products do but it is still very much alive.


This little cricket would have to say it is getting much louder here at Zilog. It is true, we went really quiet for a few years but in the last year we have been working hard at doing exactly what you are talking about. We are releasing products, we do have a new chip in the works (which does take a while), we are getting app notes done, we are working diligently to listen to the customers.

ZMotion products have been released as well as the Z16FMC motor control part. We were able to get 16 new app notes out last year, most of them since August. We have a number of reference designs and app notes in process. One of our app notes came from the forum, a request for an SD card interface. That should be posted in the next couple of weeks. I am working to funnel all app note and reference design requests from the forum into the team to make them happen. We have released the ZDS II for the Acclaim 5.1 and we have the ZDSII for Encore 5.0 in beta, to be release here shortly. There are a few other activities going as well. I have found it is getting much louder here.

I appreciate your comments and suggestions. We are listening and hoping the forum can benefit the Zilog community as much as it benefits Zilog. I would love to see much more activity and requests for things to help you design Zilog and increase confidence that we are back to work and living loud.

Thanks Tom. And please consider the concept of the other message above - that the word "purchase" might mean that we share back with you any changes we make at our end based on our testing = we have a huge testbed of busy networks and real-world situations. That would be possible from our end. We've spent a huge amount of expense and time beta testing.

For instance, an issue that popped up last week at several sites where a malformed SNMP packet can lock up the system, or we can tell you when a watchdog timer doesn't work right when you need it to, or exactly when HTTP fails, etc. etc.

Tom:

RE: ez80F91 dead? I haven't seen an ad, roadmap, white paper, , a new variant, a new app note (the app notes for the acclaim plus are mostly recycled from ZTP1.34, and some are incorrect & untested updates for ZTP2.xx) or magazine article on this MCU for years. That's how it looks to the outside world. When the only group discussing the chip is a Yahoo forum with a new message every few months, its a dead product. At least that's the image Zilog is doing an excellent job projecting. When they outsource everything to low-quality contractors, it seems like Zilog doesn't want anything to do with it anymore either.

Given the image that Zilog is projecting for this MCU, I would never consider a motor controller part from Zilog. there are other companies perceived as doing a better job at this - so there might be an image / credibility problem there that Zilog is going to have to overcome. I always perceived Zilog as being the underdog MCU / Remote Control hero from the 8080 days, not motor controller experts - at least not for industrial use. That's just how I see Zilog from a designer perspective. It seems like a very desperate move on the part of Zilog, like they're trying to grasp at any straw.