Did the Aquarius have a real Zilog CPU or just a clone?

[Aquaman]

On some sites I read that most of the time the Mattel Aquarius was not equipped with an official Zilog Z80 CPU but a clone named the NEC D780C. Can anybody confirm this and if yes does it make any difference?

[jaybird3rd]

Yes, my spare Aquarius board has a D780C processor, and I'm almost positive I've seen other Aquarius systems with Sharp LH0080 processors. I'm not aware of any important differences between these chips and a genuine Zilog Z80, but others more familiar with them might know better.

[Aquaman]

Thanks Jay, for the insight! So also the Sharp processors were used, making the Aquarius even closer to the MZ series, then we already thought! I also doubt that there are importants differences, but who knows?

[JamesD]

These are probably licensed versions of the Z80 so they should be 100% compatible.

[Rybags]

Second-sourcing for Z80 and 6502 was/is very common.

 

In fact I don't know if Atari ever bought a 6502 from MOS for it's computer or console line. That said though, almost all full-capability 6502s used by Atari were the 6502C Sally variant which was a slightly enhanced version with the HALT function that was used in most of the computers and 5200/7800 consoles.

[mvdsteenoven]

I have an Aquarius with Zilog Z80, another with NEC and a third with Sharp. Looks like they just used whatever was available.

 

Regs,

Martin