Z84C0006PEC Z80 CPU 6MHz Zilog ZX Spectrum TRS-80 DIP40 microprocessor

Z84C0006PEC processor

Chips bear traces of soldering, legs are full length. Real photographs

• DIP40 case (we offer DIP40 bases)
• Weight 6.3g
  

The Z84C0006PEC processor is a variant of the Z80 microprocessor clocked at 6 MHz. It is a classic 8-bit processor, widely used in embedded systems and personal computers in the 1980s and today in retrocomputing applications and industrial control systems. It is distinguished by its simple but powerful architecture, which was innovative at the time of its release and is still used today for its flexibility and low power requirements.
Technical characteristics of the Z84C0006PEC processor:

Architecture and registers:

The Z80 processor is an 8-bit CPU that can process data in 8-bit words, but also supports operations on 16-bit data. It has a set of 14 general purpose registers that can be used to store data and addresses. These are registers B, C, D, E, H, L and their 16-bit pairs, such as BC, DE, H In addition, the Z80 has two sets of registers: a main register and an alternate register. These registers can be quickly switched between each other, speeding up the handling of interrupts and complex operations. The special registers include: accumulator (A), flag register (F), index registers IX and IY, stack register SP, and program counter (PC).

Clock and timing:

The maximum clock frequency of the Z84C0006PEC is 6 MHz, allowing the processor to execute up to 6 million clock cycles per second. Each instruction requires between 4 and 13 clock cycles, which in practice translates into a performance of approximately 0.5-2 MIPS (million instructions per second), depending on the complexity of the operation.

Instruction set:

The processor supports an extensive CISC instruction set that includes approximately 158 basic instructions, plus additional extensions for 16-bit special mode data operations. Instructions include arithmetic operations, logic operations, bit shifts, program flow control (conditional and unconditional jumps), and stack operations. Unlike earlier processors, the Z80 offers more advanced addressing modes, such as indirect addressing through index registers (IX, IY) and relative addressing.

Interrupt system:

The Z80 supports three interrupt modes: IM 0, IM 1 and IM 2.

• IM 0 allows response to interrupts defined by external devices.
• IM 1 triggers an interrupt with a fixed vector (address 0x0038).
• IM 2 allows the use of programmable interrupt vectors, which enables more complex interrupt handling systems.

The processor also has a dedicated non-maskable interrupt (NMI), which is always handled, regardless of the state of the interrupt flags.

Addressing modes:

The Z80 processor supports various addressing modes, such as:

• Direct addressing (immediate, absolute),
• Indirect addressing via registers (e.g. HL, IX, IY),
• Indexed addressing,
• Relative addressing (for conditional and unconditional jumps).
• Support for 16-bit addressing allows the processor to directly access 64 KB of addressable memory.

Memory and peripheral support:

The Z80 has built-in input/output (I/O) ports for direct communication with external devices. Each I/O port is addressed with an 8-bit address, allowing support for up to 256 peripherals. The processor supports an 8-bit data bus and a 16-bit address bus, allowing the full 64 KB of memory space to be addressed. Special IN and OUT instructions are provided for communication with peripherals via the I/O bus.

Performance and applications:

The processor features low power consumption, making it ideal for embedded systems, mobile devices and applications requiring energy efficiency. Due to its simplicity of implementation and low cost, the Z84C0006PEC is used in a wide range of applications such as industrial controllers, embedded control systems, and retrocomputers (e.g. ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC).

Housing and assembly:

The Z84C0006PEC processor is available in a DIP-40 (Dual In-line Package) chassis with 40 leads, which facilitates its integration into classic PCB layouts and prototype systems.