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A Replica of the First 4004 Calculator

Posted by kdawson on from the intel-inside-first-post dept.

mcpublic writes "For the 37th anniversary of Intel's 4004, the world's first off-the-shelf, customer-programmable microprocessor, vintage computer enthusiast Bill Kotaska has successfully built a replica of Busicom's historic 141-PF printing calculator using vintage Intel chips. Decades before the ubiquitous 'Intel inside' sticker, Japanese calculator maker Busicom introduced the first product ever built around an Intel microprocessor. Bill's homebrew replica includes a rare Shinshu Seiki Model-102 drum printer and runs firmware extracted from the original Busicom ROMs. Schematics and photos of his re-creation are available at the unofficial 4004 web site, along with Tim McNerney's new PIC-based emulator of the Model-102 printer. The site includes the Busicom 'source code,' 4004 details, interactive simulators, and other goodies for students, engineers, and computer historians." We discussed the 36th 4004 anniversary project here last year.

7 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Looks complicated by troll8901 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Looks complicated. I would have a very difficult time coming up with such a polished work.

    1. Re:Looks complicated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      Even though you're probably joking, here's a pic of the original

    2. Re:Looks complicated by Joce640k · · Score: 3, Informative

      The original was neatly packaged...as a quick google would have shown you:

      http://images.google.es/images?q=Busicom+141-PF

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      No sig today...
    3. Re:Looks complicated by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Informative

      The 4004 was around 2300 transistors, which was close to the limit of the fabrication technology at the time (if you read about how it was created you'd be amazed at how primitive it seems - you couldn't quite do it in your own home, but it's not far off). With a modern HDL designing something like the 4004 would be trivial, and even designing it a gate at a time is not hugely difficult.

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      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  2. Re:Yes but... by jaminJay · · Score: 3, Informative

    Surely you mean 55378008. Or 5318008, for that matter.

    --
    Leela: "Is all the work done by children?" Alien: "No, not the whipping."
  3. Link to article by howardd21 · · Score: 2, Informative

    The link posted is to the main site 4004 site; the actual project article is here: http://www.4004.com/busicom-replica.html

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    no comment
  4. Re:Linux by IL-CSIXTY4 · · Score: 2, Informative

    "WAIT" is a valid keyword in Commodore BASIC 2.0. Recall the famous easter egg Microsoft planted in the first version they sold to Commodore: WAIT 6502, n