Best, most concise answer of the week. -- Will On Tue, Nov 16, 2021 at 5:20 PM Al Kossow via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

On 11/16/2021 2:20 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: I got interested in microprogramming? before it was hijacked as a a term for such devices.? It's generous at best to apply that term to a 4004 anyway. In 1971 firmware and the like still was still very much something that was used in conjunction with system design.? A group was very active, SIGMicro to share techniques.? Only after most microprogramming vanished into a black hole in the silicon did it taper off. I'm glad some amount of that discipline has emerged in that context, and not applied to small ceramic chips with gold legs. thanks Jim

I have had an interest in the 4004 for a number of years. I've acquired a SIM4-01 that I've used over the years to read and program 1702A EPROMs. I've recently also located a copy of Tom Pittman's resident 4004 assembler. Quite remarkable when you realize that that it was a complete two pass assembler that ran in just 1K of machine code. I've always been interested in application code that ran on the 4004. The CHM has recovered the ROMs used on the original Busicom calculator and has been disassembled. One can easily find it on the web. In my searches I've found code that was used to calculate time differences from satellites ( now days GPS ). A couple of the more interesting pieces of code that I've come across was a load calculator for helicopters and an electronic maneuver board ( used on shop to determine closest point of approach with time, speed and distance ). These two projects were interesting because they were developed by students of Gary Kildall, before CP/M was even a dream. A number of years ago, I began a project to recreate a working maneuver board calculator. The original used 13 ea 1702As. That was a little bit much so I used a single 2732 instead. Anyway, I had the maneuver board at the VCF west this year, along with the sim4-01 and a 4004 to arduino interface. If one has a 4004 or a 4040 with adapter, one could run the Busicom calculator code on that arduino retro-shield. One of the fellows had the weighing machines running on 4004 as well. All in celebration of the 50th year. Dwight

On 2021-11-16 4:18 p.m., Will Cooke via cctalk wrote: I believe in free speech, not "Politically Correct". The trash man takes out the trash, not some fancy "Politically Correct" name. It feels more guilty using the correct term when dumpster diving. :). Ben.

On 2021-11-16 4:41 p.m., Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: I think the first to sell at $5 or some other magic price number was most important. For $75 more you can get a state of the art toaster, with one touch browning and a free remote. The lack of good front panel I say was end of classic computing. After that every thing was the same black box computer, and C compiler. IBM IS EVIL. LIKE BIG BROTHER FROM 1984. Well regards to in my view to open ideas in computing hardware and software up until the internet. Ben.