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Intel Microprocessor

Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore left Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968 to found their own company, which they named Intel after their idea of creating integrated electronics. Intel's first successful product was a static random-access memory (SRAM) chip. In 1969, Intel was asked by a Japanese calculator company to design 12 custom chips, but Intel engineer Ted Hoff came up with the idea of putting all the functions onto a single programmable chip, creating the world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004. Consisting of just over 2,300 transistors, the 4004 revolutionized computing by allowing a complete computer system on a single chip.

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145 views

Intel Microprocessor

Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore left Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968 to found their own company, which they named Intel after their idea of creating integrated electronics. Intel's first successful product was a static random-access memory (SRAM) chip. In 1969, Intel was asked by a Japanese calculator company to design 12 custom chips, but Intel engineer Ted Hoff came up with the idea of putting all the functions onto a single programmable chip, creating the world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004. Consisting of just over 2,300 transistors, the 4004 revolutionized computing by allowing a complete computer system on a single chip.

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Cervera, Iries L.

CX32FB2
The History of Intel
In 1968, Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore were two unhappy engineers working for the
Fairchild Semiconductor Company who decided to quit and create their own company at
a time when many Fairchild employees were leaving to create start-ups. People like
Noyce and Moore were nicknamed the "Fairchildren".
Bob Noyce typed himself a one page idea of what he wanted to do with his new
company, and that was enough to convince San Francisco venture capitalist Art Rock to
back Noyce's and Moore's new venture. Rock raised $2.5 million dollars in less than 2
days.

Intel Trademark
The name "Moore Noyce" was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so the two founders
decided upon the name "Intel" for their new company, a shortened version of "Integrated
Electronics".
Intel's first money making product was the 3101 Schottky bipolar 64-bit static random
access memory (SRAM) chip.

One Chip Does the Work of Twelve


In late 1969, a potential client from Japan called Busicom, asked to have twelve custom
chips designed. Separate chips for keyboard scanning, display control, printer control and
other functions for a Busicom-manufactured calculator.
Intel did not have the manpower for the job but they did have the brainpower to come up
with a solution. Intel engineer, Ted Hoff decided that Intel could build one chip to do the
work of twelve. Intel and Busicom agreed and funded the new programmable, general-
purpose logic chip.
Federico Faggin headed the design team along with Ted Hoff and Stan Mazor, who wrote
the software for the new chip. Nine months later, a revolution was born. At 1/8th inch
wide by 1/6th inch long and consisting of 2,300 MOS (metal oxide semiconductor)
transistors, the baby chip had as much power as the ENIAC, which had filled 3,000 cubic
feet with 18,000 vacuum tubes.
Cleverly, Intel decided to buy back the design and marketing rights to the 4004 from
Busicom for $60,000. The next year Busicom went bankrupt, they never produced a
product using the 4004. Intel followed a clever marketing plan to encourage the
development of applications for the 4004 chip, leading to its widespread use within
months.
The Intel 4004 Microprocessor
The 4004 was the world's first universal microprocessor. In the late 1960s, many
scientists had discussed the possibility of a computer on a chip, but nearly everyone felt
that integrated circuit technology was not yet ready to support such a chip. Intel's Ted
Hoff felt differently; he was the first person to recognize that the new silicon-gated MOS
technology might make a single-chip CPU (central processing unit) possible.
Hoff and the Intel team developed such an architecture with just over 2,300 transistors in
an area of only 3 by 4 millimetres. With its 4-bit CPU, command register, decoder,
decoding control, control monitoring of machine commands and interim register, the
4004 was one heck of a little invention. Today's 64-bit microprocessors are still based on
similar designs, and the microprocessor is still the most complex mass-produced product
ever with more than 5.5 million transistors performing hundreds of millions of
calculations each second - numbers that are sure to be outdated fast.

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