Posted on 11/16/2021 1:33:31 PM PST by Kid Shelleen
November 15th is the 50th anniversary of the launch of the first commercially available microprocessor — the Intel 4004. Our industry can trace itself back to this seminal event, and it’s amazing the progress the industry has made in 50 years. Intel has created a site dedicated to the anniversary that will have links to videos by the early designers and a wealth of information on the development of the chip.
You should be familiar with the story of how Intel engineers Marcian “Ted” Hoff, Stan Mazor, and Federico Faggin, pitched a new design for the Busicom calculator that reduced the chip count from 12 to only four. The CPU had only 2,300 transistors on a 14 mm2 die, multiplexed buses, and a clock frequency of just 740khz, all crammed into a 16-pin dual inline package, or DIP (it was the only IC package on hand at Intel in 1971). The 4004 employed a cutting-edge, 10 μm silicon-gate, PMOS process technology with enhancement loads fabricated on 2-inch wafers
(Excerpt) Read more at eetimes.com ...
I did a couple of jobs with the 8085. Assembly is fun!
Yeah thanks. I just read Intel is building another massive production center in Arizona next to their current facilities. Wasn’t sure if they were making CPUs or some other components...
My first intel chips were 8086/88, 4.77 MHz, running DOS 1.1
I don’t have an ARM Desk/Lap-top - yet, but I do like my pocket sized devices. I could cook an egg on my intel based MBPro when that chip gets spun up.
I think it goes farther back to when television was rolled 70 years ago than anything else.
Much of our chip supply comes from Taiwan
Perhaps that puts it into context just how vital it is to American interests for some here thinking we shouldn’t fight for Taiwan
Damnit! That makes me feel old!
My first software job was writing Z80 assembly language for network protocol analyzers. >>>>> RS-232 Rules! <<<<<
This was back in 1985.
You never forget your first.
Bobby Baker (b^2)worked for me for a short time at Fab 1 .
He was powerful and a great guy.
When did the Irish Fab shut down? And has anyone told Intel yet???
https://www.intel.ie/content/www/ie/en/company-overview/intel-in-ireland.html
And, of course, Intel is buying components from TMSC for its graphics chips.
https://www.reuters.com/business/intel-details-mixed-source-chip-strategy-tsmc-partnerships-2021-08-19/
Thanks for the ping. The 4004 made Bill Gates’s career. He started a company called Traff-O-Data when he was a teenager, so when the first ‘personal’ computer called the Altair was 4004-based, he had a leg up on the competition for writing BASIC for it.
‘’
The operating temperature specs for Intel 4004 were limited. Had to wait for the RCA 1802 CMOS microprocessor to come on the market before I could use a microprocessor in the products I was designing way back then.
Good for you. What year?
Do you have a link to some photos of it?
I was a tech at Pertec in Irvine in ‘74. They were using the 8008 in key stations.
I had an AIM 65 in ‘89, learned some assembly programming on it, then bought an HC11 emulator.
Year was 1979/80. No link to online photos. Tried to upload photos but got an error message: “Internet not yet ready for general use. Try again in a few years.”
The Altair was 8080 based. But, I actually have a couple of 4004s. I should try to get something going with one. My first system was a Motorola MEK6800D1. 768 bytes of ram.
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