[cctalk] Re: Intel 4004

On 2023-Nov-21, at 1:03 AM, ED SHARPE via cctalk wrote: A claim is made for the first microproc being the CADC processor of an early flight-control system for the F-14, made by Garrett AiResearch ~ 1969. I haven't looked into it in depth - or I don't know of detailed info being available - but apparently it was a CPU made up of several LSI chips. In my opinion that disqualifies it, but it's all into the mug's game of specifying 'first at what?' There's also the TMS-1000 series of calculator chips which were single-chip programmed processors and came in the same time-frame (measured in months) of the 4004. IIRC, there's some argument there about development vs production vs release vs availability dates. Also to note, there were multi-chip programmed-processor calculator chip-sets in that time-frame, not sure of the exact timing relative to the 4004. The microproc was simply a development whose time had come. It was a predictable, 'in-the-air' idea brought to fruition with increasing integration capabilities. In reality the 4004 was/would-be awkward to use for a general-purpose system. The 4004 CPU was tailored for use with mask-programmed ROM chips and RAM chips, all specific to the MCS-4 family. IO was also in those MCS-4 chips. To make a system with off-the-shelf ROM/RAM/IO chips required going through other special MCS-4 family chips for that purpose. Or put another way, it was a multi-chip CPU by the time you tried to make a system with standard RAM/ROM/IO chips. I have two embedded systems using 4004s: - an M900 PROM programmer. This system does have interfacing for use of off-the-shelf ROM (1702s) and RAM. The manual for this includes the firmware source code listing. - the remnants of the PLL control from an avionics transceiver. An example of a 'proper' MCS-4 system, as it was intended to be used, with 4004 CPU, 4001 ROMs, 4002 RAM & 4201 clock-gen. http://madrona.ca/e/4004Monument/index.html