Forgot your password?
Cyhist Feb 07 1997 B
Document Actions
Date: Fri, 7 Feb 1997 16:23:20 -0500
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: "David S. Bennahum" <davidsol@panix.com>
Subject: CM> Microprocessors and Busicom
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
My understanding is that Intel wound up creating the 4004 microprocessor out of a contract with a Japanese company called Busicom. Busicom, in 1969, had asked intel to build an integrated circuit which could be used in hand-held calculators. An engineer at Intel named Marcian E. "Ted" Hoff apparently was assigned to the project, and he came up with a plan to shrink the circuits down by reducing their complexity. The result, in 1970, was the 4004, seen as the first "microprocessor."
I would like to know what the distinction is between an "integrated circuit" and a "microprocessor." When is one not the other?
Now, I know that Texas Instruments claims it beat Intel to the distinction of building the first microprocessor. This still seems unresovled. On what is TI basing this claim?
Also, I am very curious if anyone on the list actually bought a Busicom product. What happened to that company? What did they build? Were they well known at all?
Also, does anyone know the release dates of the world's firt commercially available microprocessor-based hand-held calculator? How about the world's first commercially available digital watch? Anyone remember how much they cost?
I am also keen on opening a thread which would address the question of how the microprocessor altered the dynamics of programming, and the computer industry at the time. The microprocessor took what had been an industry whose clients were mostly government, business and large institutions like universities, and exponentially increased the number of potential buyers, by making first digital devices (watches, video game machines, etc), then computers, available in the home. Presumably this had some effect on what I'll call the culture of programming. The types of applications that were need changed, and the way they were coded, in terms of planning and execution, may have changed as well. Is this accurate? How tulmultuous were these changes? Anyone out there who recalls what that transition was like? How long did it take before the magnitude of this transition was apparent?
best,
db
______________________________________________________________________
Reply-To: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
Sender: "CYHIST Community Memory: Discussion list on the History of
Cyberspace" <CYHIST@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU>
From: "David S. Bennahum" <davidsol@panix.com>
Subject: CM> Microprocessors and Busicom
______________________________________________________________________
Community Memory: Discussion List on the History of Cyberspace ______________________________________________________________________
My understanding is that Intel wound up creating the 4004 microprocessor out of a contract with a Japanese company called Busicom. Busicom, in 1969, had asked intel to build an integrated circuit which could be used in hand-held calculators. An engineer at Intel named Marcian E. "Ted" Hoff apparently was assigned to the project, and he came up with a plan to shrink the circuits down by reducing their complexity. The result, in 1970, was the 4004, seen as the first "microprocessor."
I would like to know what the distinction is between an "integrated circuit" and a "microprocessor." When is one not the other?
Now, I know that Texas Instruments claims it beat Intel to the distinction of building the first microprocessor. This still seems unresovled. On what is TI basing this claim?
Also, I am very curious if anyone on the list actually bought a Busicom product. What happened to that company? What did they build? Were they well known at all?
Also, does anyone know the release dates of the world's firt commercially available microprocessor-based hand-held calculator? How about the world's first commercially available digital watch? Anyone remember how much they cost?
I am also keen on opening a thread which would address the question of how the microprocessor altered the dynamics of programming, and the computer industry at the time. The microprocessor took what had been an industry whose clients were mostly government, business and large institutions like universities, and exponentially increased the number of potential buyers, by making first digital devices (watches, video game machines, etc), then computers, available in the home. Presumably this had some effect on what I'll call the culture of programming. The types of applications that were need changed, and the way they were coded, in terms of planning and execution, may have changed as well. Is this accurate? How tulmultuous were these changes? Anyone out there who recalls what that transition was like? How long did it take before the magnitude of this transition was apparent?
best,
db
______________________________________________________________________
