Zilog was incorporated in California in 1974 by Federico Faggin, who left Intel after working on the 8080, and the Z80 shared many features with it.
Later Zilog introduced 16-bit and 32-bit processors, but these were not particularly successful, and the company refocussed on the microcontroller market, producing both basic CPUs and application-specific standard products (ASSPs) built around a CPU.
As well as producing processors, Zilog have produced several other components. One of the most famous was the Z8530 serial controller as found on Sun SPARCstations and SPARCservers up to the SPARCstation 20.
The company became a subsidiary of Exxon in 1980, but the management and employees bought it back in 1989. It went public in 1991, and was reorganized in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2001.
Zilog products have included: