# Zilog Z80

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/zilog-z80/

20 people recommended Zilog Z80 in Hacker News comments and 9 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 12 months, in 8 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

12 of the 20 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “The Zilog Z80 has turned 50”.

**Verdict:** Recommended for its simple, expressive instruction set and long run in calculators and hobby machines, with people praising it as a first assembly language and a reliable workhorse.

Summary written by Claude from 29 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 27 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Simple, expressive instruction set (5 comments in the sample): "With Z80, it was much easier to compute arithmetic expressions than it is with RISC-V" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48956306)) "it is fun and IMO actually easier then lets say learning Haskell or JS from scratch" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45936223)) "Z80 is more expressive and yields more interesting replicators faster" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48979559))
- Nostalgia from early computers (4 comments in the sample): "Still I've always loved the z80, since my first computer the ZX Spectrum." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48952131)) "I still love you Z80, you did pop my cherry!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48953923)) "Just shows how far we had come at the time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48952071))
- Long, reliable service life (3 comments in the sample): "it's still doing good work in those calculators even 20+ years later" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48952231)) "Hard to name another CPU with that kind of run in active production." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48956601)) "That’s why the Z80 was around for so long" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49858086))
- Good for learning assembly (2 comments in the sample): "I love the Z80, I started my career writing Z80 assembly for various embedded projects" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46637497)) "it was a good introduction to how a computer works" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48953897))

## What people warn about

- Irregular registers and bolted-on instructions (3 comments in the sample): "The Z-80 suffers in this regard because like the x86, it uses 1-2 bytes for the bolted-on instructions and modes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48027612)) "The Z80 processor is a twisty collection of registers, none alike." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49769281)) "Kludge instruction sets like the Z80." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50045000))
- Awkward memory access (1 comment in the sample): "The Z80 is awful at accessing memory for anything other than a simple absolute address" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49406313))

## Other microprocessors people recommend

- [MOS 6502](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mos-6502/): 23 recommend, 3 mixed, 5 criticize
- [Motorola 68000](https://hackerapproved.com/p/motorola-68000/): 11 recommend, 6 mixed, 4 criticize
- [NEC V20](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nec-v20/): 6 recommend, 3 mixed, 0 criticize

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.zilog.com/)

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Zilog Z80", https://hackerapproved.com/p/zilog-z80/ (20 recommend, 0 mixed, 9 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.