Intel's 4004 Microprocessor Turns 45 (4004.com)

mcpublic writes: Tuesday marked the 45th anniversary of the 4004, Intel's first microprocessor chip, announced to the world in the November 15, 1971 issue of Electronic News . It seems that everyone (except Intel) loves to argue whether it was truly the "first microprocessor"... But what's indisputable is that the 4004 was the computer chip that started Intel's pivot from a tiny semiconductor memory company to the personal computing giant we know today. Federico Faggin, an Italian immigrant who invented the self-aligned, silicon gate MOS transistor and buried contacts technology, joined Intel in 1970. He needed both his inventions to squeeze the 4004's roughly 2,300 transistors into a single 3x4mm silicon die. He later went on to design the Intel 8080 and the Zilog Z80 with Masatoshi Shima, a Japanese engineer with a "steel trap mind," the once-unsung hero of the 4004 team [YouTube].
Long-time Slashdot reader darkharlequin also flags the " fascinating, if true" story of Wayne D. Pickette, who was hired by Intel in 1970, worked on the 4004 project, and according to ZDNet "claims that prior to that, during his job interview with Intel founder Bob Noyce, he showed the company a block diagram of a microprocessor he'd started to work on three years previously when he was 17."

Comments

TFA completely left out Datapoint.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

Federico Faggin ... later went on to design the Intel 8080 and the Zilog Z80 with Masatoshi Shima, a Japanese engineer with a "steel trap mind ...

Which leaves out the fact that the 8008 was not an in-house-conceived upgrade of the 4004. Instead it was a commission, from Datapoint corporation, to implement the instruction set of their Dreatapoint 2200 terminal as a microprocessor chip.

A failed commission at that: TI dropped out early, and Intel got theirs to work, but with a chip that came in late, and slower than Datapoint's 100-ish chip TTL design (even though the latter's ALU was serial rather than parallel). So Datapoint and Intel agreed to settle the contract, with Datapoint being refunded the costs and Intel getting to sell the chip as their own when they got it finished, and make derivatives.

Great deal for Intel. Not so hot for Datapoint, whose flagship terminal was now facing competition based on their own instruction set and designs.

When you cut a deal with a big semiconductor house, you have to watch out for this sort of thing. As I understand it, the TI calculators came from a similar situation where TI built a 4-bit processor as a commission for a calculator manufacturer, then built and sold their own products around it and its follow-ons.

Similarly with Ford and Motorola. Ford commissioned the processor for the EEC-III without including an option for a spin to include design upgrades identified as very-useful-to-necessary. They identified several things that would make the chip better. So they reported them to Motorola in the hopes they'd incorporate them in a follow-on despite no contractual obligation to do so. They did make a follow-on with the improvements, which they sold to GM. B-b

So, as with a Deveel, if you think you cut a good deal with a semiconductor company, be sure to count your fingers, then your toes, then your relatives...