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Ted Hoff Talks About The Invention Of The Intel 4004

Posted by michael on from the abacus-XP dept.

An AC sends us this interesting piece - "I recently came across this not-so-new interview with Ted Hoff, the inventor of the first CPU in the world - Intel4004. It's fascinating reading: the birth of the chip, the dispute over credibility, patent filing and his later life with Atari."

4 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. And if you want to talk antiques. . . by Salgak1 · · Score: 4
    . . .I used to gun a computer in the USAF, that the CPU took up 4 cabinets, 3 of which were filled with magnetic core memory. This was a "minicomputer", circa 1963. . . . 200 Khz, 128K of memory

    The CPU, per se, took up 12 slots in a 3 foot by 8 foot cabinet. . .and it drove analog devices. It was "updated" with an auxiliary computer in the late 1970's, which used the early PC hobbyist's friend, the 8-inch hard-sectored floppy.

    The entire purpose of the system, was to drive a simulator for USAF B-52 Electronic Warfare Officers. Even in the 1980's, we had a heck of a time getting parts for it, and were screaming for a IC-based replacement. . . . 4004's would have increased performance several orders of magnitude...

  2. ZMOB with 128 Z-80s. Transputers! by billstewart · · Score: 4
    A long long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I think University of Maryland in ~1985, there was a project for a many-processor machine made with Z-80s, ZMOB, "the Computer of the Future, using the Processor of the Past". You can find several interesting stories on your favorite web search engine.


    Also, the Transputer was an early machine designed for clustering massively parallel systems. Each Transputer chip had four interfaces, which you could use to connect to neighboring machines in a big mesh, or build more hypercubish things with.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  3. And here's Federico Faggin's story by ch-chuck · · Score: 5

    right here

    He's the guy who bolted from Intel and started up Zilog (in a nutshell - detailed versions welcome).

    Excerpt: Three weeks after that disappointment, a new run came. My hands were trembling as I loaded the 2-inch wafer into the probe station. It was late at night, and I was alone in the lab. I was praying for it to work well enough that I could find all the bugs so the next run could yield shippable devices. My excitement grew as I found various areas of the circuit working. By 3:00 a.m., I went home in a strange state of exhaustion and excitement.

    --
    try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
  4. 4004 Not Found - or First, Either! by BigBlockMopar · · Score: 5

    Intel has often claimed that the 4004 was the first CPU chip. And it's generally accepted as fact.

    However, it's not.

    TI unveiled one in 1970. I can't even remember the part number because it didn't get any popularity, but itwas basically the entire CPU board from a TI minicomputer compressed onto one chip.

    The patent wasn't issued until 1973.

    "Texas Instruments invented the integrated circuit, microprocessor and microcomputer. Being first is our tradition."

    - TI Product Manual

    Fact: Texas Instruments makes more chips every day than Frito-Lay.

    Fact: Texas Instruments made the first 16-bit CPU chip, too - the TMS9900. It was used in TI-99/4A home computers and Patriot guided missiles.

    Fact: Most TI stuff is built to almost military specs: the home computer's cards were cased in cast aluminum.

    Intel is just an annoying little upstart, and the Pentium 4 is merely the continued evolution of the 4004, which was merely a hand calculator chip.

    Oh, yeah, and TI did that, too, also in 1971. Only, I'd submit that Intel didn't complete the job, the 4004 required support ICs. TI's didn't.

    --
    Fire and Meat. Yummy.