The Osborne Executive is the successor of the successful Osborne 1 computer. It was produced by the Osborne Computer Corporation in 1982.

The Executive runs the CP/M 2.22 operating system on the Z80 processor. The machine came bundled with the Wordstar word processor, the SuperCalc spreadsheet and CBasic and MBasic as programming languages.

The case has a built in 7" amber monitor providing a 80x24 text display. Two 5.25" single-sided double-density disk drives were built in, and the case had room for the storage of 10 floppy disks. The heavy weight (28 lbs, 13kg) and the fact that there were no internal batteries made the machine not exactly portable. An aftermarket battery pack became available, providing 1 hour of run time.

The computer was equipped with the following ports:

• IEEE-488 port, configurable as parallel printer port.
• Two RS-232 serial ports capable of 300, 1200 or 2400 baud.
• A composite video monitor connector

The machine was also capable of emulating various models of computer terminal which made it useful to dial in to remote systems.

The Z80 quickly became popular in the personal computer market, with many early personal computers, such as the TRS-80 and Sinclair ZX80, using the Z80 as their central processing unit (CPU). It was also widely used in home computers, such as the MSX range, SORD, and the Amstrad CPC, as well as in many arcade games. Additionally, it was also used in other applications such as industrial control systems, and embedded systems. The Z80 was widely used until the mid-1980s, when it was gradually replaced by newer microprocessors such as the Intel 80286 and the Motorola 68000.

The Z80 microprocessor was developed by Zilog, a company founded by Federico Faggin in 1974. The Z80 was released in July 1976, as a successor to the Intel 8080. It was designed to be fully compatible with the 8080, but also included new features such as an improved instruction set, more powerful interrupts, and a more sophisticated memory management system.

Originally the Z80 was intended for use in embedded systems, just as the 8080 CPU. But the combination of compatibility, superior performance to other CPUs of the era, and the affordability led to a widespread use in arcade video game systems, and later in home computers such as the Osborne 1, TRS-80, ColecoVision, ZX Spectrum, MSX, Sega's Master System and many more. The Z-80 ran the original Pac-Man arcade cabinet. The Z-80 was used even in the Game Gear (1990s), and the TI-81 and succeeding graphic calculators.

The Z-80 remained in production until June of 2024, 48 years after its original release. Zilog replaced the processor with its successor the eZ80, an 8-bit microprocessor that features expanded memory addressing up to 16 megabytes, and running up to 50MHz, comparable to a Z80 clocked at 150MHz.