computers
showed up where you didn't have to count the pins on the CPU,
specifically the TRS-80 (later renamed the Model One). I remember the
first time I looked down into a Model 16 and saw the MC68000 and wondered
why the hell that thing wasn't climbing up the side of the Empire State
Building.
What you missed was the ti9900 chip that was 3 years older and also 64 pins.
FYI the ti9900 chips was a 16bit cpu!
Some ASICs were put into 64 pin DIPs in the late 1970s as well.
Of course, all of this 64 pin package talk pales in light of some IBM
mainframes at the time, sporting Thermal Conduction Modules (air or water
cooled multichip packages) with 800 to 900 pins jammed in a 9 square inch
footprint.
William Donzelli
william(a)ans.net