Intel 8008
The Intel 8008 CPU was the world's first microprocessor; it was an 8-bit unit. The first chips were made in 1971 and announced in March or April 1972. It had a clock frequency of 0.5MHz, or 0.8MHz for the 8008-1 variant pictured to the right. The 0.8MHz variant was available as early as June 1972[1].
The 8008 was commissioned by the Computer Terminal Corporation for their ground-breaking Datapoint 2200 programmable terminal product; the instruction set was designed by CTC, not Intel. Due in part to issues at Intel, the chip was delayed, and when it did finally appear, it did not reach the performance CTC had specified; so CTC wound up using a CPU of their own design, implemented in discrete TTL logic, in the 2200.
The design of the 8008 actually started only slightly after the preliminary thinking about the 4004 (the first microprocessor actually sold) but was put on hold (partly because CTC, which was funding the development, ran into business difficulties), and re-started after the 4004 was finished. This is reflected in the original naming used for them, which was '1201' for the 8008 and '1202' for the 4004: '1': P-MOS, '2': Random logic, '01': Serial number ('02' for the 4004). Both processors were renamed for marketing reasons.
The 8008 eventually evolved into the Intel 8080, from which the entire Intel x86 line later developed.
External links
- Oral History Panel on the Development and Promotion of the Intel 8008 Microprocessor
- The 8008 & The 8080
- The Texas Instruments TMX 1795: the (almost) first, forgotten microprocessor - Ken Shirriff's article about the first microprocessors, covers the 8008 also
- Craig Solomonson's 1972 Intel Microcomputer)
