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Gordon Moore Interview On The First Microprocessor

The document features an interview with Gordon Moore discussing the development of the Intel 4004 microprocessor, highlighting Federico Faggin's leadership and contributions to the project. It clarifies that while Ted Hoff conceived the architecture, Faggin's innovations in silicon gate technology were crucial for the microprocessor's realization. The 4004, which was commercially released in 1971, marked a significant milestone in computing technology.

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6 views2 pages

Gordon Moore Interview On The First Microprocessor

The document features an interview with Gordon Moore discussing the development of the Intel 4004 microprocessor, highlighting Federico Faggin's leadership and contributions to the project. It clarifies that while Ted Hoff conceived the architecture, Faggin's innovations in silicon gate technology were crucial for the microprocessor's realization. The 4004, which was commercially released in 1971, marked a significant milestone in computing technology.

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25. 2. 18.

오후 4:37 Gordon Moore Interview on the First Microprocessor

Gordon Moore Interview on the First Microprocessor Home Back

The Intel 4004 Microprocessor and the Silicon Gate Technology


A testimonial from Federico Faggin, designer of the 4004 and developer of its enabling technology

Quick Links: Dr. Gordon Moore's Interview on the First Microprocessor


The Silicon Gate Gordon Moore talks about the first microprocessor in his office at Intel’s Headquarters in a clip from
Technology the documentary “Silicon Valley Story,” (1996), by journalist and film director Chiara Sottocorona.
The MCS-4 Chip Set
The 4000 Family
Interview Transcript:
The Silicon Gate Design
"The first microprocessor that we made at Intel was in response to the interest of a Japanese
of the 4004
calculator company that wanted to make a family of scientific and business calculators. Ted Hoff
thought that by using a general purpose architecture, general purpose computer architecture, the
kind of thing that were being built in larger minicomputers at the time, it would be possible to build all
of these calculators and he also thought that the sophistication of the technology at that time was at
the point that we could probably put the entire processor on one chip. This was really a very
important breakthrough. He was working with Mr. Mazor in seeing how to realize this and then we
hired Dr. Faggin who we had known back at Fairchild to come in and actually lead the project to
realize the processor that Dr. Hoff had conceived. And Federico Faggin and the team then succeeded
in completing the development of these products so that we could ship them. Actually the first one
was shipped for calculators early in 1971 and the product was finally announced generally available to
other users in November of 1971.

Leadership of the MCS-4 Project - Federico Faggin


"...and then we hired Dr. Faggin who we had known back at Fairchild to come in and actually lead the
project to realize the processor that Dr. Hoff had conceived."

In this interview, Gordon Moore, in his own well-pondered words, acknowledges Federico Faggin as
the person who led the microprocessor project, clearly dispelling every ambiguity as to the leadership
of the chip design, which is often attributed to Ted Hoff. Faggin led the project from inception in 1970
to its successful debut on the market in 1971.
Faggin was the natural leader of the project because at Fairchild, where Dr. Moore had known him
before he came to work at Intel, he had developed the technology that made semiconductor
memories and microprocessors possible -- the Silicon Gate Technology -- and had designed the
world's first commercial integrated circuit using silicon gate (the Fairchild 3708). This technology was
eventually adopted worldwide.

Conception of the MCS-4 Project - Ted Hoff


The processor that Dr. Hoff conceived"
"Ted Hoff thought that we could probably put the entire processor on one chip"

The conception of the MCS-4 architecture was not a breakthrough for the following reasons: (1) In
1969 it was well known how to architect a small computer (2) The use of a general purpose CPU at
the heart of a desktop programmable, printing calculator was done in 1965 by Olivetti with their
Programma 101, and the Busicom architecture already included a CPU to be partitioned in 3 chips (3)
Making a CPU on a single chip was an already predicted trend at some of the most advanced
semiconductor companies, but had not yet been done, although CPUs using more than one chip had
been designed before the 4004 was completed.
Ted Hoff was not a chip designer and he was in no position to tell if the single chip
microprocessor could actually be done, and even less to develop it or direct its development (see
quotes from interviews). In fact, he thought that the design could use two-phase dynamic logic.
However, such methodology required bootstrap loads which were considered not realizable with silicon
gate technology without an additional masking step that would have made it uneconomical. Therefore
the design would have needed static logic, which required at least twice as many transistors,
rendering also the project unfeasible. Hoff and Mazor after contributing their block architecture were
not involved with the 4004 design and also they could not give design directions to Hal Feeney during
the 8008 project (see 8008 designers).
It was Faggin's inventions of the bootstrap load with silicon gate, combined with his invention of the
buried contact that made the 4004, the 8008, and the 8080 (architected by Federico Faggin) possible.

Design and Creation of First Single Chip Microprocessor - A Novel Contribution by


Federico and His Team
However, no one had yet been able to design an integrated circuit with the required complexity,
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25. 2. 18. 오후 4:37 Gordon Moore Interview on the First Microprocessor
speed, power dissipation, and small chip size to make a microprocessor a commercial reality. This was
Faggin’s novel contribution that required much creativity in methodology, logic, circuit and layout
design, as well as in process technology. The unique silicon design of the 4004, done by Faggin and
his team, was the missing link to make the first microprocessor a commercial reality. Hoff and Mazor
were not part of the team working with Faggin.

REFERENCES:
Silicon Gate Technology and Fairchild 3708
4004 Microprocessor Display at Opening of New Intel's New Museum (1992)
Programma 101: The incredible story of the first PC, from 1965
Wikipedia: Programma 101
-Ted Hoff was not a chip designer ref: in the book "Inventors at work" by Kenneth A. Brown (1988
Microsoft Press, p. 285). Hoff says that his role consisted in pretty much in defining the architecture
and his related concepts. But then he turned his architecture over to the MOS Design Department for
its conversion into actual chips.
The Designer Behind the World's First Microprocessor - Federico Faggin
Stan Mazor interview with Rob Walker in “Silicon Genesis”(2000): "Ted and I thought it [the 4004]
was a little too aggressive and we weren’t so sure it could be done…"
The Busicom Calculator Engineering Prototype, with the first 4004 ever produced was sent to Federico
as personal present by Busicom’s president Yoshio Kojima. It was given in grateful recognition of
Faggin's leadership in meeting the new schedule he proposed to Busicom after the architecture
proposal idled for about 6 months.

Nowadays different computer systems use microprocessor technology for games including
gambling. There are different games that provide both classic gambling and specific one, for
example skin gambling CS2 websites with new processors technologies.

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