ZILOG was founded in 1974 by industrial pioneers Federico faggin and Ralph Ungermann. Z80 series controllers produced by the company have been widely used. In 1998, TPG (the Texas Pacific Group) acquired ZILOG. Based on ZILOG's design and production experience, TPG positioned the market in three aspects: communication, home entertainment and integrated control. At present, ZILOG company has its own proprietary design reference room with complete data. It has established four design centers in California, Texas, Idaho and Washington. It has advanced manufacturing plants in Idaho, a testing plant in Manila, Philippines, and a global user service center in Texas. At present, there are 27 sales offices and more than 120 distribution points in the world. The company's new product is ez80, which embeds Internet and DSP (digital signal processing) functions on the basis of Z80. Products include IR products, microcontrollers, microprocessors, PCMCIA, PC peripherals, TV controllers and wireless products, etc.