> In my view, the key features of a microprocessor are that it provides a CPU on a single chip (including ALU, control functions, and registers such as a program counter) and that it is programmable.
Which means that, pioneering as it was, this wasn’t a microprocessor.
Ken’s post is terrific btw for an overview of the candidates for the title of first microprocessor.
Not sure it really qualifies but certainly nice to see some history not written by the victors.
As Ken's article cited below details, none of these chips were really "invented". The designs, or very close to the same design already existed in SSI or MSI implementation. So nobody was inventing anything here. It was more a case of "can you make me one of these on a chip?" If anything was invented it was the idea that you could sell a discrete CPU component to many customers. Until then most system builders rolled their own CPU. That said the minicomputer market existed as a precursor. Those were often used in "embedded systems".
I agree with Ken Shirriff [1]
> In my view, the key features of a microprocessor are that it provides a CPU on a single chip (including ALU, control functions, and registers such as a program counter) and that it is programmable.
Which means that, pioneering as it was, this wasn’t a microprocessor.
Ken’s post is terrific btw for an overview of the candidates for the title of first microprocessor.
[1] https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-surprising-story-of-the-first-...
Not sure it really qualifies but certainly nice to see some history not written by the victors.
As Ken's article cited below details, none of these chips were really "invented". The designs, or very close to the same design already existed in SSI or MSI implementation. So nobody was inventing anything here. It was more a case of "can you make me one of these on a chip?" If anything was invented it was the idea that you could sell a discrete CPU component to many customers. Until then most system builders rolled their own CPU. That said the minicomputer market existed as a precursor. Those were often used in "embedded systems".