On Nov 15, the Intel 4004, the world's first commercially produced microprocessor, was launched
The Intel 4004 was released on Nov 15 52 years ago, and it was an incredibly important chip with an interesting history.
On Nov. 15, 1971, the Intel 4004 CPU was released. It was the first commercially produced microprocessor and the first-ever CPU for Intel, which later went on to become a domineering force in the PC industry. It all started thanks to Nippon Calculating Machine Corp. asking Intel to produce 12 custom chips for the Busicom 141-PF printing calculator. Intel's engineers went on to recommend a family of just four chips instead, but one that could be used for a variety of products. These four chips were known as the MCS-4 (Micro Computer System, 4-bit), laying the groundwork for Intel to succeed as one of the most influential companies in modern electronics.
[...] In the Intel 4000 family, these were split up as follows:
- Intel 4001: A 256-byte 4-bit ROM.
- Intel 4002: DRAM with four 20-nibble registers. A nibble is four consecutive binary digits, otherwise known as half an 8-bit byte.
- Intel 4003: I/O with a 10-bit static shift register with serial and parallel outputs.
- Intel 4004: A CPU.
This system, when fully expanded, could interface with 16 4001 chips for a total of 4KB ROM, 16 4002 chips for 640 bytes of RAM, and any number of Intel 4003 chips. With these designs complete, Busicom went on to prototype the calculator that would use them. In April 1971, they could confirm that the calculator worked, packing one 4004, two 4002, three 4003, and four 4001 chips.
[...] At the time, the Intel 4004 really was as influential as the company made it out to be. It had 2,300 transistors, whereas nowadays, the Apple Silicon M3 Max has 97 billion. It was a massively important chip that changed the course of the computing industry forever, as it was a building block that engineers could purchase to customize with software. It was used in ATMs, pinball machines, and more.
(Score: 5, Touché) by maxwell demon on Monday November 20, @07:15AM
640 Bytes should be enough for anyone.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday November 20, @07:24AM (1 child)
Compare of Intel 4004 platform to Apple M3 Max platform is irrelevant.
Certainly, M3 is not customizable for electronics engineering as 4004 was. Consider it an engineering regression.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Monday November 20, @09:34PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Rich on Monday November 20, @12:30PM
... but coincidentally I was in Munich over the weekend and used the opportunity to visit Deutsches Museum. In their IT/electroncis section, they have a single 4004 IC (which looks a bit lost in its large glass box) and a nicely disassembled (parts vertically arranged) Busicom 141-PF. I noted its importance as ancestor of all PCs, and then, a few steps further, I noted the importance of the (original, blue caps) Apple I board as (spiritual) ancestor of all Macs. Weirdly, these ancestry lines overlapped between 2005 and 2020.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday November 20, @09:20PM (2 children)
Its not that one piece of hardware has 1e6 more thingies than the other, its that programmer skill is so shitty today compared to the 70s, that a handheld calculator takes 1e6 more thingies to make it work.
Taking more transistors to "do the same old thing" is like bragging that your car burns more gas so it must be more betterer.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday November 21, @03:54PM (1 child)
The oil companies would agree that it is much more gooder.
Life is short. It's even shorter if you are stupid.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday November 21, @11:20PM
LOL ditto the transistor making companies