Yeah. its sad that other users reply weeks / months before anyone at Zilog will pay attention to the forum. I'm not even sure why they have this??

Terrific 8-bit parts, lots of peripherals, best tools on the market - no roadmap.

I agree - I think the tools are great, especially after trying some of the competition with restricted code size and other crippleware.

It's been nearly three years since this forum started and I haven't seen anything really new (the Z8051 doesn't count). I don't log in often here anymore and when I do, I can almost see the tumbleweeds rolling through.

Cue tumbleweeds, the shot of the rusted, broken windmill, the creaking door hinges over at the saloon with shattered windows...

I completely agree - we use the ez80F91 part and ZTP 1.34 very successfully in a reliable product - but that is circa 2005/2006. GREAT development tools! The TCP/IP code from India was just horrible after that, and then we were supposed to get all this "wake-up" channel stuff, Then nothing.

The trouble with online forums like this: When the sponsor company completely ignores them and puts zero effort into continuing development and good app notes, it becomes clear to -al-l the extreme level of inactivity. It is quite obvious that Zilog isn't even interested in Zilog anymore, let alone XYXS.

Look at the online forums for Microchip and TI - very, very active with lots of contact between company engineers and end-users.

I wonder how many messages we'll get in this thread before someone at Zilog "chimes in"?

The last two paragraphs in this article from 2009 (prior to the sale to IXYS) is telling:

==========
microcontroller.com/news/Zilog_Sells_Crimzon_Zatara.asp

Zilog's Future

Last September, Zilog had a workforce of about 400 employees worldwide. Today, only 135 people still have jobs at Zilog. Billerbeck stated today that Zilog intends to grow their remaining flash microcontroller business. However, with the exit of Dr. Norm Sheridan as head of Engineering, as well as the departure of almost all of Zilog's experienced design engineers, Zilog's present management does not intend to develop any new silicon because they no longer have a design engineering team. Only two or three semiconductor design engineers remain with the company.

When asked about the process of selling off today's assets, Billerbeck complained that as he sought out interested buyers of Zilog IP, "nobody looked at the whole Zilog". Coupled with their recent behavior and rapidly dwindling sales, it's clear that present management's only interest is selling off what remains of this once grand and historic company that invented the Z80 in 1976.
==========

If there is no new silicon being developed and there aren't many engineers left at Zilog, then there is little point in these forums because there is no-one in Zilog to interact with.

Yeup, my point exactly: When you have a forum like this with huge, huge gaps in the datelines, its kind of like anti-advertising. There is nobody at the server end watching anything, and certainly nothing going on at Ziliog.

The dev tools are great, and I'd design in new products if I thought Zilog's heart was in it at all. Right now its just fizzling out.