Copyright 1994 Information Access Co., a division of Ziff Communications Co.; Copyright Ziff-Davis Publishing Company 1994 PC Magazine October 25, 1994 SECTION: Vol. 13 ; No. 18 ; Pg. 95; ISSN: 0888-8507 LENGTH: 835 words HEADLINE: Inside track; Column BYLINE: Dvorak, John C. BODY: Old Chips Never Die Dept.: How many out there remember the Zilog Z-80 chip? It dominated personal computing from the late 1970s right up until about 1983. Fact is that last year Zilog sold more Z-80s than ever before (30 million at about a dollar a shot). It's possible that the actual total runs about 60 million or more if you add in the half a dozen licensees. This chip, as well as the best-selling Motorola 68000, ends up in hand-held calculators and other electronic paraphernalia. Sega and other home entertainment companies use it. The Motorola factory sells about 36 million 68000 chips per year. Besides being the chip in the original Mac (which quickly moved to the 68020, 68030, 68040, and the PowerPC), the 68000 powered the early Sun workstations. I remember when you got one million instructions per second for $ 20,000! Finally, there's the old 6502. That was the chip found in the venerable Apple II. Today, a 16-bit version dubbed the 65C816S powers the Super Nintendo. Development work on these chips hasn't ended. Zilog recently announced the Z-380, a full 32-bit chip that's Z-80-compatible with the 8-bit chip. The Zilog chip utilizes 4 full 32-bit registers so it can do fast context switching. The external bus is 16 bits wide and the chip can address up to 4GB of memory. It costs about ten bucks out of the chute. Maybe those aging die-hard CP/M fanatics running those old clunkers will find solace here. Too bad all the companies that supported the old hardware architectures are mostly out of business today. This chip, along with some cheap memory, might revitalize the hobbyist movement, which was always oriented toward inexpensive computing. While we're all scrambling for pricey Pentiums or waiting for the pricey PowerPC, we're overlooking a cheap solution. Now all we need is a graphical user interface to run on it. Hmmm, I wonder if the source code for Digital Research's old GEM operating system is available? Meanwhile, Motorola plans a new derivative of the original 68000, called the Advanced Consumer Electronics Processor. Obviously, this device is designed for game machines and set-top television boxes. As for the 65C816, look for that chip to be used in a computer named after its designer, William Mensch. Yes, the Mensch Computer running Mensch Works. Microsoft Watch. So I'm told that the day Chicago ships, the bug-fix upgrade will be immediately ready for announcement. A marketing ploy, it seems. Personally, I find this plan hard to believe, but it comes from a disgruntled Chicago coder who thinks the idea stinks, because he and his pals will be blamed for any faults found in the initial version. This was one of many odd Microsoft rumors floating around the offbeat hackers conference, Defcon II, in Las Vegas. Genuinely Interesting Hardware Dept.: I can't recommend more highly the six-disk CD-ROM changer from Pioneer. Using a quadruple-speed motor, this player is the beefed-up version of the mechanism found in the trunk of the early Lexus automobile as well as compact disk players for the home. This is simply the CD-ROM player of choice for the single-user workstation. And for you power users, OS/2 seems to like this drive and has no trouble locating it for CD-ROM-based system installation. Having said that, I can make one suggestion: It would be cool if, in addition to the six-pack cartridge, there were a one-disk slide-out drawer. My Pioneer disk changer is loaded with six disks I use all the time (Microsoft Bookshelf, Computer Select, Phone Disc Business, etc.), and I'd like to be able to easily look at other disks only occasionally. It's too much work to take out the whole cartridge just to look something up from a baseball statistics disk once in a blue moon. It would be better if a drawer for the lone disk were available. Still, this is a great piece of equipment. Pioneer says the company has serious intentions to dominate the CD-ROM player business in the years ahead. Highly recommended. We Be Green Dept.: (Please read this column under a dim light.) The "green" phenomenon is spreading around the world, no place more so than in Taiwan. I'm referring to all the power-saving tricks to help save energy and the environment. In Taiwan, the vendors have gone gah-gah over green; it's green this and green that, with a variety of official levels of greendom. You'll see advertised products that are light green, medium green, dark green, or deep green, each a reference to bolder energy-saving steps. At times it gets silly. One vendor at the Computex show had the world's first "green" mouse. He even put a little sticker on it. Taiwanese companies are getting serious about the environment. I'm impressed by a new foam packaging material called Hidem foam developed by the Gin Young Company. Hidem foam uses water, not chlorofluorocarbons, as a foaming agent. After forming, the stuff breaks down when exposed to sunlight. A little-known fact is that Taiwan is the world leader in plastics technology.