The history of the microcomputer-invention and evolution

Author

Mazor, Stanley

Author_Institution

C-ATS Software, Palo Alto, CA, USA

Volume

83

Issue

12

fYear

1995

fDate

12/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1601

Lastpage

1608

Abstract

Intel´s founder, Robert Noyce, chartered Ted Hoff´s Applications Research Department in 1969 to find new applications for silicon technology-the microcomputer was the result. Hoff thought it would be neat to use MOS LSI technology to produce a computer. Because of the ever growing density of large scale integrated (LSI) circuits a “computer on a chip” was inevitable. But in 1970 we could only get about 2000 transistors on a chip, and a conventional CPU would need about 10 times that number. We developed two “microcomputers” 10 years ahead of “schedule,” by scaling down the requirements and using a few other “tricks” described in this paper

Keywords

MOS digital integrated circuits; history; large scale integration; microprocessor chips; reviews; Applications Research Department; Intel; MOS LSI technology; Si; Si technology; history; large scale integrated circuits; microcomputers; single chip computers; Application software; Central Processing Unit; History; Integrated circuit technology; Large scale integration; Microcomputers; Paper technology; Random access memory; Silicon; Vehicles;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Proceedings of the IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9219

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/5.476077

Filename

476077