From: Erik Slagter <erik_at_slagter.name>
Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 11:47:57 +0200

Vladimir Pantelic wrote:

> The data sheet says 8bit! There is a DSP that does the MP3 decoding and
> a DMA controller, so most likely the z80 does little besides reading the
> FAT filesystem and setting up the DMA to pipe data from Flash to the DSP.

Actually the Z80 is an 8-bit CPU with some 16-bit extensions. For
example it can combine six 8-bit registers into three 16-bit registers,
and do some simple arithmetic on them (add/sub). This may not sound
impressive, but it is way easier to program than a pure 8-bit CPU like
the 6502/6510 which doesn't know of 16-bit at all.
Received on 2007-08-18