2 Mar
2008
2 Mar
'08
8:23 a.m.
On 2 Mar 2008 at 7:18, dwight elvey wrote:
The cost of a mask ROM was expensive to develop.
The IMSAI and Altair were created just after Intel created the floating
gate EPROM. It was a step the lead to the end of the front panel.
I consider the EPROM to be more significant to computing than the
4004 was. Others were on the way to creating their own uP's. It
was the EPROM that lowered the development cost making even the
shoe string shops able to create products.
EPROM dates from 1971, before the 8080. Even then, the bipolar PROM
was around (PROM dates from 1956, albeit not as an IC). Indeed, my
first front-panel substitute 8080 system used bipolar TTL PROM and
not an UV EPROM.
Cheers,
Chuck