The 70’s experienced an incredible
advancement in electronic technology. But, there was one invention that topped
all others in this decade. The Intel 4004 was publicly introduced in November
of 1971 as the worlds first single chip microprocessor. This was truly a
remarkable invention that was engineered by Intel’s Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff,
and Stanley Mazor. Years earlier there was talk of having a computer on a chip,
but to many it was just a fantasy and did not really seem realistic at that
point in time. However, not all were skeptics, Ted Hoff of Intel was sure he
could create an invention that would revolutionize the industry of technology
forever. Hoff was the first person to see the new silicon-gated MOS technology
as a great opportunity in electronic advancement. After much research, software
design, and work, Hoff and the Intel team created a chip that for the first
time ever had a full central processing unit (CPU) built into it. But, that is
not all it had, it contained a command register, decoder, decoding control,
control monitoring of machine commands and interim register. This was
incredible because this little chip was only an 1/8th of an inch
wide and 1/6th of an inch long. The 4004 contained 2,300 metal oxide
semiconductor (MOS) transistors and contained as much power as the ENIAC (Electrical
Numerical Integrator And Calculator), which covered an area of 1,800 square
feet, weighed 30 tons, and consumed 160 kilowatts of electrical power. This
chip was turning out to be quite an amazing invention and was in a complete
league of its own.
Busicom, a Japanese calculator
manufacturer, was actually the first client of the 4004 and had asked Intel to
design and manufacture 12 separate chips that could perform the duties for
keyboard scanning, display control, printer control, and some other functions
for their calculator. Intel later came back with the idea of the 4004
microprocessor chip, which had all 12 separate chips in 1 single chip. It was
incredibly fast and could even store up to 4KB of memory. This chip truly was a
great breakthrough for electronic technology, also for the computer industry as
well. The Microprocessor is actually the reason we are able to have home
computers and laptops. Even today the microprocessor is based on the designs of
the original 4004 and is the most complex mass-produced product ever.
This is awesome. Just think, everything we are using to post to this blog or to comment is based on this technology. We wouldn't have phones, computers, video games, calculators, or anything important that we use everyday if it wasn't for the creation of the Intel 4004. It is pretty funny though that the first client to use the 4004 was a Japanese calculator manufacturer. The Japanese have become such a driving force behind technology and create some of the most impressive technology and hardware that many of us use today. What do you think gave the creator's their inspiration? I could never in a million years think up something like this.
ReplyDeleteIt took me some thinking to even wrap my head around your article. To be honest, the technological jargon isn’t one of my strong suits. I’ve always known Intel has had a strong history of innovation in technology, I just wasn’t sure how far back they went. It’s truly weird to look back at history and see how far we have come with technology. Especially when I’m sitting here with a laptop that a great deal more memory space than that chip did. It is pretty cool that it is the most complex mass-produced product ever. I can’t imagine how many of these there have been made.
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy to me that this piece of technology, the Intel microprocessor chip, was developed this long ago and it is still something that exists today. It must have been super advanced. I remember getting my first laptop about five years ago and hearing how big of a deal it was that my MacBook came with Intel. I still don’t understand fully what that means, but now I know that this was first developed in the 1970’s. Our nation thrives on this invention today. Our capabilities and efficiency with work and progression all are outcomes of this invention. That is a huge deal, the Intel and Ted Hoff must be proud of their contribution to society.
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