6 Oct
1998
6 Oct
'98
7:21 a.m.
Intel supplied the ammunition for a
revolution: cheap computers. The high level of integration was what
enabled them to make it cheap, and they commercialized it. The level of
integration is the salient feature of the chip, but not the main feature
of the important event.
It *certainly* wasn't obvious in the mid-70's, when Intel had picked
up its pieces and put together a microprocessor chip (the 8080A) which cost
a significant fraction of what a new car cost at the time, that
VLSI CPU's were going to be replacing boards full of TTL logic.
It was Intel's competitors - notably Motorola and especially MOS
Technology - who were responsible for driving microprocessor CPU costs
to the hundred-dollar-level and below. That's when times really began
a-changin'.
Tim.