Zilog Z80000

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The Z80000 is Zilog's 32-bit processor, first released in 1986. It is essentially a 32-bit expansion of its 16-bit predecessor, the Zilog Z8000. It includes multiprocessing capability, a six-stage instruction pipeline, and a 256-byte cache. Its memory addressing system can access 4 gigabytes of RAM. It can execute code written for the Z8000, but, like the Z8000, is not compatible with the Z80.

Described at the time as a "mainframe on a chip", the processor is in many ways an equivalent to Intel's 80386. Delays in the initial manufacturing pushed back its availability date to after that of the 386, and the Z80000 only made it to a test sampling phase without ever being released commercially.^[1]