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Intel Releases 4004 Microprocessor Schematics
Posted by
kdawson
on Wed Nov 15, 2006 12:30 AM
from the 2,300-transistors-and-nothin'-on dept.
from the 2,300-transistors-and-nothin'-on dept.
mcpublic writes, "Intel is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Intel 4004, their very first microprocessor, by releasing the chip's schematics, maskworks, and users manual. This historic revelation was championed by Tim McNerney, who designed the Intel Museum's newest interactive exhibit. Opening on November 15th, the exhibit will feature a fully functional, 130x scale replica of the 4004 microprocessor running the very first software written for the 4004. To create a giant Busicom 141-PF calculator for the museum, 'digital archaeologists' first had to reverse-engineer the 4004 schematics and the Busicom software. Their re-drawn and verified schematics plus an animated 4004 simulator written in Java are available at the team's unofficial 4004 web site. Digital copies of the original Intel engineering documents are available by request from the Intel Corporate Archives. Intel first announced their 2,300-transistor 'micro-programmable computer on a chip' in Electronic News on November 15, 1971, proclaiming 'a new era of integrated electronics.' Who would have guessed how right they would prove to be?"
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Historians Recreate Source Code of First 4004 Application 159 comments
mcpublic writes "The team of 'digital archaeologists' who developed the technology behind the Intel Museum's 4004 microprocessor exhibit have done it again. 36 years after Intel introduced their first microprocessor on November 15, 1971, these computer historians have turned the spotlight on the first application software ever written for a general-purpose microprocessor: the Busicom 141-PF calculator. At the team's web site you can download and play with an authentic calculator simulator that sports a cool animated flowchart. Want to find out how Busicom's Masatoshi Shima compressed an entire four-function, printing calculator into only 1,024 bytes of ROM? Check out the newly recreated assembly language "source code," extensively analyzed, documented, and commented by the team's newest member: Hungary's Lajos Kintli. 'He is an amazing reverse-engineer,' recounts team leader Tim McNerney, 'We understood the disassembled calculator code well enough to simulate it, but Lajos really turned it into "source code" of the highest standards.'"
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Origins of the Modern PC 99 comments
Homncruse writes "ComputerWorld dispels myths about the history of modern day computers — or, more appropriately, the invention of the first microprocessor. Contrary to popular belief, 'the [Intel] 8008 was not actually derived from the 4004 — they were separate projects.' In fact, the 8008 concept didn't originate from Intel (though they were eventually granted IP rights.) The article goes on to explain the events leading up to the invention and first intended use of the 8008 (a predecessor to the 8086, etc.), and how Intel was initially uneasy about the venture."
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Heh (Score:3, Funny)
Wouldn't it be cool, though, if Intel did name the quad-core chips the 4004 series?
The days of the Nibble... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The days of the Nibble... (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure there was bloatware -- so people upgraded to the 8080.
Zzzz (Score:4, Funny)
And imagine OGG supporting a Beowolf cluster of them in Soviet Russia.
Re:Zzzz (Score:5, Funny)
Well, Belgium! You had to go and use up most of the old standbys yourself. But you missed at least one...
I, for one, welcome our 4 bit overlords.
Parent
Fast-forward (Score:3, Insightful)
Who would have guessed chips produced 35 years later, would still inherit the brain-damaged ISA of the 4004. (OK, so the ISA probably didn't look too bad when it was for the 4004)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Fast-forward (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Railroad gauges (Score:5, Informative)
The thrust of the point to me, is the very point that nobody sat around and actually considered what might be a good rail gauge to adopt for shipping lines, they just went ahead with a horribly odd standard that was already in existence.
Parent
Re:Railroad gauges (Score:4, Informative)
One man did. Isambard Kingdom Brunel did exactly that. He sat down and thought about what gauge to make his railway (The Great Western) and came up with 7 feet as a much more sensible value. He was entirely correct, but unfortunately his version was abandoned simply because far more people had used the existing default.
John
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
ISA - Instruction Set Architecture
There are others of course, but I just don't see how the Irish Sailing Association is relevant here.
Re:Fast-forward (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
4004 tic tac toe (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:4004 tic tac toe (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
640k (Score:3, Funny)
Re:640k (Score:5, Interesting)
Ah, back in the good old days when 640K _was_ enough for anyone...
Dude, my first computer had 256 Bytes (not K -- *BYTES*) of memory (Built form the September 1976 issue of Popular Electronics -- Build Your Own Microcomputer, based on the COSMAC 1802 processor). 640K was beyond freaking imagination.
Parent
a bit of relevant info.... (Score:4, Informative)
The first microprocessor in history, Intel 4004 was a 4-bit CPU designed for usage in calculators, or, as we say now, designed for "embedded applications". Clocked at 740 KHz, the 4004 executed up to 92,000 single word instructions per second, could access 4 KB of program memory and 640 bytes of RAM. Although the Intel 4004 was perfect fit for calculators and similar applications it was not very suitable for microcomputer use due to its somewhat limited architecture. The 4004 lacked interrupt support, had only 3-level deep stack, and used complicated method of accessing the RAM. Some of these shortcomings were fixed in the 4004 successor - Intel 4040.
Digital archaeologists (Score:3, Funny)
"early gang bang porn, log it"
wipe wipe
"early vivid movie, looks like Jemma was young and need the money, log it"
wipe wipe
"some girl on girl stuff, log it" wipe wipe
"holy crap I am taking this home"
Re:Digital archaeologists (Score:5, Funny)
Before DivX pr0n there was MJPEG pr0n.
Before MJPEG pr0n there was JPEG pr0n.
Before JPEG pr0n there was bitmap pr0n.
Before bitmap pr0n there was ASCII art pr0n.
Before that, some weirdo was convinced that two LED's looked like nipples...
*g*
Parent
LED porn? (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/circuits-discover
Parent
Era of Intel's Ways (Score:3, Interesting)
Does Intel still have a working patent protecting the 4004? And doesn't that patent include the schematics? What's the point of patenting an invention if other inventors can't tell whether they're reinventing what you've protected from "infringement"?
Re:Does it run Linux? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Does it run Linux? (Score:5, Funny)
From forums.gentoo.org / Architectures & Platforms / Gentoo on 4004 ...
Yea, I just did a stage 1 install, it took 12865 hours but the binaries are TOTALLY optimized!
Parent
Re:how about minix ? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent