There were press releases, and fanfare, and then ......... silence.....

[" Zilog's New 32-Bit-SoCs

Zilog will develop a new set of 32-bit MCU-based SoCs that build on its pre-existing, and deep knowledge base of ARM processors. It will provide differentiated ASSPs and MCU based solutions by building the "Zilog value-add" around the low power capabilities and highly configurable nature of Cortex-M3 processor, taking advantage of its ability to apply technology to key targeted applications to achieve clear technology differentiation at the right value proposition. "Our comfort level and experience with ARM processor-based solutions, our MCU/ASSP leadership, and the standardized development environment make the partnership and the ARM Cortex-M3 processor a perfect solution for MCU applications," stated Billberbeck."]

So, where is this ?
Dead ?

Well some companies have done some effort on Arm based mcu's but they are big houses like STM with STM32 or NXP and others,
these companies are maybe used to re'use thid parties ip core or are using arm on some of their bigger chip, if i am not wrong
this xould be the first time zilog deals with third party ip ?
MIPS is doing a push also to enter mobile market .
Other big houses in MCUs are NEC and Renesas , i think NEC has the 78k mcu with is z80 based, and Z180 original design
was hitachi , i think toshiba has also MCU based on Z80 : TLCS-90&900 family.
So i would not say changing from Z80 based to arm will bring back zilog to the front of the scene but who knows ?
I think what makes Arm interesting is the software already developed & also the engineers who are used to deal with arm
tools & softs.

I started looking at the Cortex M3 (STM32) in one of my current designs, and got some eval samples and played around with the architecture and dev tools. But the clincher for me was the cost of development software. Sourcery G++ was the least worst dev tool, but there aren't any "low price" configurations, just the free IDE with binary-only libraries. I didn't try to see if newer or patched libraries could be downloaded.

IF Zilog can "synergise" the M3 core with Zilog peripherals/addins, AND the development tool price is reasonable, AND the support is there from the get-go, I'd be interested.

Then again... Z280 anyone?

have you tried primer2 of devkit ?
...
but nevermind , what do you mean Z280 ? you mean users of the mpu ?
its nice design but only 12MHz max speed.

I've tried the STM32 Primer2 devkit. The value is incredible, like $70 for a complete hand-held device with a color LCD touchscreen, joystick, accelerometer, Li-On power cell, USB interface, Audio MP3 capable chip, internal MicroSD slot, etc. I even thought of just reselling these with a different sticker on it, has a finished product!

What I don't like is the very limited space inside for prototyping, and you must do what you can with a 2.8V supply.

Also, what is somewhat keeping me back from the STM32 at the moment is the really expensive debugging solutions. You can buy the Raisonnance RLINK probe for around $80, but you are limited to 32K code size when debugging. If you want unlimited debugging, last time I checked it was 750 EURO for the license

If you only want the STM32 processor, with the I/O headers, this looks interesting:

www.futurlec.com/ET-STM32_Stamp.shtml

At US$25, its quite affordable (debugging sold separately )

After playing with the STM M3 samples on my own breakout boards, I actually bought the Futurlec STM32 "stamp" eval kit with a 512k STM32 module. They also ship 2 development tools, the IAR V5.11 Kickstart software (limited to 32k codesize) and the Keil MDK-ARM v3.22, again size-crippled. But it is a good starting point, and my guess is that most hobbyists would be delighted to play with a "massive" 32k codesize.

And for less than US$70, that's not a bad way to start Cortex dabbling I guess. Not as sweet as the $70 touchscreen LCD options, though.