Milestones That Mattered: Painting microprocessors in broad strokes
By Maury Wright, Editor in Chief -- EDN, July 20, 2006
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From EDN, Jan. 15, 1972 One-Chip CPU available for low-cost dedicated computers "Announcing a new era of integrated electronics." This introduction for a new IC may seem immodest, but Intel Corp. might just be correct. The IC is a single-chip CPU designed for low-speed microprogrammable applications, such as terminals, peripherals, test systems, and process control. The CPU, Type 4004, is designed to work with other members of Intel's MC5-4 microcomputer set. The other ICs in this kit of standard building blocks are the 4001 ROM, 4002 RAM, and the 4003 shift register (SR). Click here for the complete text of this 1972 article. |
No one likely would argue the microprocessor's place on our roster of Milestones That Mattered. Surely, there'd be heated discussion over who invented the processor. But the benefits of the invention are clear. Productivity has benefited hugely from the processor-based PC. And thousands of processors surround us in our everyday lives, with vendors adding more daily.
One of the themes of our 50th anniversary issue, due this September, will be "softwarerization." We know it's not a word. But the movement of functions to software has been an unmistakable and enduring trend, which the microprocessor, at least in the broadest set of applications, has enabled. Designers can implement anything from simple hardware circuits, such as UARTs, to complex data-coding functions, such as MPEG, in software.
But let's get back to history. Intel claims to have developed the first commercial microprocessor with the launch of the 4004 in 1971. The company built the first design for customer Busicom of Japan and targeted calculators, although Intel later reacquired the rights to the 4004. Ted Hoff and Federico Faggin of Intel get the credit, although Intel tried at one point to erase Faggin's contribution from history after he defected to Zilog.
Some historians, however, believe that Four Phase Systems was shipping the AL1 processor a year before Intel delivered the 4004. Lee Boysel designed the AL1, but history largely buried the achievement because Motorola acquired the company, which most people forgot about. Texas Instruments also lays claim to early processor development.
What's undeniable is that Intel was most successful in commercializing the technology that would underwrite decades of innovation. You can read the complete original EDN account of the 4004 in "EDN Flashback: One-Chip CPU available for low-cost dedicated computers" (the sidebar on the right is an excerpt). That early processor sold for $100 in low volumes.
