The 8080 lives! At least the variant of the venerable microprocessor that is used in the 8051 microcontroller does Intel Corp and Philips Electronics NV’s Philips Semiconductors have signed a strategic agreement to extend the architecture of the 8-bit microcontroller family: the pair claim to be the two largest suppliers of the microcontrollers and the alliance is intended to ensure the continued longevity and standardisation of the architecture throughout the decade; the alliance will result in a new family of products, based on an upgraded C51 core code-named ZX that is fully instruction-set compatible with existing 8051 devices; the new versions will offer higher performance, expanded supply voltage down to 3V, extended address range, high-level language support, fully static design and reduced noise generation; first products will arrive in 12 to 15 months.
