The Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Zilog as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his 11 employees starting in early 1975, before going on sale in July 1976. The processor is a software-compatible with the Intel 8080 but with several enhancements and at a lower price. Like the 8080, the Z80 was mainly aimed at embedded systems, but it became one of the most widely used CPUs in home computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Zilog Z80 was also common in military applications, musical equipment, and coin-operated arcade games of the era, including Pac-Man.

A microprocessor is a computer processor for which the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit (IC), or a small number of ICs. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to perform the functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU). The IC is capable of interpreting and executing program instructions and performing arithmetic operations. The microprocessor is a multipurpose, clock-driven, register-based, digital integrated circuit that accepts binary data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and provides results as output. Microprocessors contain both combinational logic and sequential digital logic, and operate on numbers and symbols represented in the binary number system.