The Rabbit 2000 is a high-performance

8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit integers or other data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data buses of ...

microcontroller A microcontroller (MCU for ''microcontroller unit'', often also MC, UC, or μC) is a small computer on a single VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs ( processor cores) along with memory and programma ...

embedded system An embedded system is a computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is ''embedded'' ...

applications. Rabbit Semiconductor has been bought by

Digi International Digi International is an American Industrial Internet of Things ( IIoT) technology company headquartered in Hopkins, Minnesota. The company was founded in 1985 and went public as Digi International in 1989. The company initially offered intellig ...

, which is since selling the Rabbit microcontrollers and hardware based on them. The instruction set is based on the original

Z80 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. The first working samples were ...

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...

, but with some additions of new instructions as well as deletions of some instructions. Among the Z80 instructions missing in the Rabbit, cpir is particularly notable, since it allows for much more efficient implementations of some often-used standard C functions such as strlen(), strnlen() and memchr(). According to the Rabbit documentation, it executes its instructions 5 times faster than the original

, that is, similarly to the

Zilog eZ80 The Zilog eZ80 is an 8-bit microprocessor from Zilog, introduced in 2001. eZ80 is an updated version of the company's first product, the Z80 microprocessor. Design The eZ80 (like the Z380) is binary compatible with the Z80 and Z180, but ...

. The Rabbit 3000 is a variant of the Rabbit 2000 with the same core, but more powerful integrated

peripherals A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer. The term ''peripheral device'' refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by th ...

. The Rabbit 3000A variant adds a small number of additional instructions for I/O and large integer arithmetic. The Rabbit 4000 again adds more integrated peripherals. The further derivatives, starting with the Rabbit 5000 have a substantially different architecture. Most of the Rabbit microcontrollers come with built-in

flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid F ...

memory and SRAM. They also have ADC and timers built-in.

Compiler support

The Rabbit 2000 is supported by the free (GPL)

Small Device C Compiler The Small Device C Compiler (SDCC) is a free-software, partially retargetable C compiler for 8-bit microcontrollers. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License. The package also contains an assembler, linker, simulator and debugger. ...

and

Z88DK Z88DK is a Small-C-derived cross compiler for a long list of Z80 based computers. The name derives from the fact that it was originally developed to target the Cambridge Z88. Z88DK is much developed from Small-C and it accepts many features of AN ...

. There also are the non-free Dynamic C provided by the makers of the Rabbit and the commercial third-party CROSS-C. The latter two are quite incomplete in their support of the C standard, and their Rabbit 2000 backends are no longer available in current compiler versions.

External links

Rabbit 2000 DocumentationsRabbit 2000 User Manual
{{Authority control Microcontrollers