Intel 8080
The Intel 8080 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed primarily by Federico Faggin and Masatoshi Shima at Intel and released in April 1974. During its lifespan, it was typically employed as a central processing unit. It has an instruction set of 57 8-bit instructions, a 16-bit address bus, could be clocked between 2-3.125 MHz, and is packaged in a ceramic 40-pin DIP. The chip was designed to be an extended version of the earlier Intel 8008. The CP/M operating system was originally designed to work on the Intel 8080.
In March 1976, Intel released the 8085 CPU which had minor enhancements and was fully backward compatible with the 8080. In 1978, the chip was superseded by the 16-bit Intel 8086. Intel went on to license the 8080 to over a dozen other companies who produced equivalent CPUs.
Unhappy at Intel, Federico Faggin left to co-found Zilog where he produced the Zilog Z80, a chip that was not only fully-compatible with the 8080, but was also cheaper and featured many enhancements.
Contents
Personal
I learned about the Intel 8080 due to its relation to old 8-bit computers and video games and being the foundation for the hugely popular Zilog Z80.
Devices
The Intel 8080 was popular in arcade cabinets as well as several home computers:
- Altair 8800
- Sol-20
- IMSAI 8080
- Intellec 8 Mod 80
- MPT8080
- System/23 Datamaster - Intel 8085 variant.
Media
Documentation
Manual - Microcomputer Systems User's Manual.
Manual - Assembly Language Programming Manual.
Pinout.
Links
