12 Oct
1998
12 Oct
'98
3:56 a.m.
I maintain my stance that 'microprocessor' is a term used by the
public and media to refer to a series of technical developments, that
are not well considered before calling them microprocessors. In
short, there is no way to define a microprocessor in the technical
sense. TI's 1979 book Understanding Microprocessors defines it as:
A digital integrated unit (or a set of IC's) that contains the
digital functions necessary to be a CPU. It "processes" information
and controls and keeps the system working in harmony as it responds to
the step by step program that the CPU follows.
Nice and circular :)
what a "microprocessor" is. In fact, the
Arabs and the Israelis will
never have peace until the definition of a microprocessor is agreed
upon
once and for all (oh yeah, and what "the
first" means too).
Sellam Alternate e-mail:
dastar(a)siconic.com
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12 Oct
12 Oct
7:29 a.m.
"Max Eskin" <maxeskin(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
TI's 1979 book Understanding Microprocessors
defines it as:
A digital integrated unit (or a set of IC's) that contains the
digital functions necessary to be a CPU.
Naturally TI is going to downplay the "single-chip" requirement, since they
failed to produce a working single-chip CPU before Intel.
TI had a design, but it didn't prove to be manufacturable.
Even if not everyone here agrees that being on a single chip is a necessary
condition for something to be called a microprocessor, to the best of my
knowledge no one disagrees with the claim that Intel as the first to make
a single-chip CPU.
Eric
9:24 a.m.
On 12 Oct 1998, Eric Smith wrote:
Even if not everyone here agrees that being on a
single chip is a necessary
condition for something to be called a microprocessor, to the best of my
knowledge no one disagrees with the claim that Intel as the first to make
a single-chip CPU.
I do. Ray Holt did it with AMI working for Garrett AiResearch in 1970.
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ever onward.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 09/21/98]
9:49 a.m.
I wrote:
Even if not everyone here agrees that being on a
single chip is a necessary
condition for something to be called a microprocessor, to the best of my
knowledge no one disagrees with the claim that Intel as the first to make
a single-chip CPU.
Sam wrote:
I do. Ray Holt did it with AMI working for Garrett
AiResearch in 1970.
I read the web pages, but Microsoft Word 97 SR1 refuses to open any of the
papers. The description on the web page doesn't seem to substantiate your
claim that one of his chips could serve by itself as a usable CPU. The SLF
chip apparently contains the control logic for a CPU, but the description
does not suggest that it fetches instructions from memory.
Russell Fish's "Analysis of the CADC F-14 Flight Computer" likens the
SLF to the F8 CPU. However, the F8 CPU does in fact contain a program
counter, as has been discussed here before. The F8 CPU is capable of fetching
instructions, branching, and subroutine calls under its own control, as was
(for example) the Intel 4004. The description of the SLF does not allude to
any such capability.
They were definitely quite remarkable chips for the time.
12:47 p.m.
On Columbus Day,
sure seems like a lot of people going along with the idea of "marketing"
Columbus as having been the "discoverer".
Just like the majority of books going along with "marketing" the Intel
4004 as being the "first" whatever it was.
The predecessors will be recorded, if at all, in most of the histories
along with the Vikings and those from Asia who had settled the place a
while back.
--
Fred Cisin cisin(a)xenosoft.com
XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com
2210 Sixth St. (510) 644-9366
Berkeley, CA 94710-2219
9573
days inactive
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