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Intel 8008
The Intel 8008 ("eight-thousand-eight" or "eighty-oh-eight") is an early 8-bit microprocessor capable of addressing 16 KB of memory, introduced in April 1972. The 8008 architecture was designed by Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC) and was implemented and manufactured by Intel. While the 8008 was originally designed for use in CTC's Datapoint 2200 programmable terminal, an agreement between CTC and Intel permitted Intel to market the chip to other customers after Seiko expressed an interest in using it for a calculator.
In order to address several issues with the Datapoint 3300, including excessive heat radiation, Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC) designed the architecture of the 3300's planned successor with a CPU as part of the internal circuitry re-implemented on a single chip. Looking for a company able to produce their chip design, CTC co-founder Austin O. "Gus" Roche turned to Intel, then primarily a vendor of memory chips. Roche met with Bob Noyce, who expressed concern with the concept; John Frassanito recalls that:
"Noyce said it was an intriguing idea, and that Intel could do it, but it would be a dumb move. He said that if you have a computer chip, you can only sell one chip per computer, while with memory, you can sell hundreds of chips per computer."
Another major concern was that Intel's existing customer base purchased their memory chips for use with their own processor designs; if Intel introduced their own processor, they might be seen as a competitor, and their customers might look elsewhere for memory. Nevertheless, Noyce agreed to a US$50,000 development contract in early 1970 (equivalent to $405,000 in 2024). Texas Instruments (TI) was also brought in as a second supplier.[citation needed]
In December 1969, Intel engineer Stan Mazor and a representative of CTC met to discuss options for the logic chipset to power a new CTC business terminal. Mazor, who had been working with Ted Hoff on the development of the Intel 4004, proposed that a one-chip programmable microprocessor might be less cumbersome and ultimately more cost effective than building a custom logic chipset. CTC agreed and development work began on the chip, which at the time was known as the 1201.
TI was able to make samples of the 1201 based on Intel drawings, calling it the TMX 1795. These proved to be buggy and were rejected. Intel's own versions were delayed. CTC decided to re-implement the new version of the terminal using serial discrete TTL instead of waiting for a single-chip CPU. The new system was released as the Datapoint 2200 in the spring of 1970, with their first sale to General Mills on 25 May 1970. CTC paused development of the 1201 after the 2200 was released, as it was no longer needed. Later in early 1971, Seiko approached Intel, expressing an interest in using the 1201 in a scientific calculator, likely after seeing the success of the simpler 4004 used by Busicom in their business calculators. A small re-design followed, under the leadership of Federico Faggin, the designer of the 4004, now project leader of the 1201, expanding from a 16-pin to 18-pin design, and the new 1201 was delivered to CTC in late 1971.
By that point, CTC had once again moved on, this time to the parallel-architecture Datapoint 2200 II, which was faster than the 1201. CTC voted to end their involvement with the 1201, leaving the design's intellectual property to Intel instead of paying the $50,000 contract. Intel renamed it the 8008 and put it in their catalog in April 1972 priced at US$120 (equivalent to $902 in 2024). This renaming tried to ride off the success of the 4004 chip, by presenting the 8008 as simply a 4 to 8 port, but the 8008 is not based on the 4004. The 8008 went on to be a commercially successful design. This was followed by the popular Intel 8080, and then the hugely successful Intel x86 family.
In the UK, a team at S. E. Laboratories Engineering (EMI) led by Tom Spink in 1972 built a microcomputer based on a pre-release sample of the 8008. Joe Hardman extended the chip with an external stack. This, among other things, gave it power-fail save and recovery. Joe also developed a direct screen printer. The operating system was written using a meta-assembler developed by L. Crawford and J. Parnell for a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11. The operating system was burnt into a PROM. It was interrupt-driven, queued, and based on a fixed page size for programs and data.
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Intel 8008 AI simulator
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Intel 8008
The Intel 8008 ("eight-thousand-eight" or "eighty-oh-eight") is an early 8-bit microprocessor capable of addressing 16 KB of memory, introduced in April 1972. The 8008 architecture was designed by Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC) and was implemented and manufactured by Intel. While the 8008 was originally designed for use in CTC's Datapoint 2200 programmable terminal, an agreement between CTC and Intel permitted Intel to market the chip to other customers after Seiko expressed an interest in using it for a calculator.
In order to address several issues with the Datapoint 3300, including excessive heat radiation, Computer Terminal Corporation (CTC) designed the architecture of the 3300's planned successor with a CPU as part of the internal circuitry re-implemented on a single chip. Looking for a company able to produce their chip design, CTC co-founder Austin O. "Gus" Roche turned to Intel, then primarily a vendor of memory chips. Roche met with Bob Noyce, who expressed concern with the concept; John Frassanito recalls that:
"Noyce said it was an intriguing idea, and that Intel could do it, but it would be a dumb move. He said that if you have a computer chip, you can only sell one chip per computer, while with memory, you can sell hundreds of chips per computer."
Another major concern was that Intel's existing customer base purchased their memory chips for use with their own processor designs; if Intel introduced their own processor, they might be seen as a competitor, and their customers might look elsewhere for memory. Nevertheless, Noyce agreed to a US$50,000 development contract in early 1970 (equivalent to $405,000 in 2024). Texas Instruments (TI) was also brought in as a second supplier.[citation needed]
In December 1969, Intel engineer Stan Mazor and a representative of CTC met to discuss options for the logic chipset to power a new CTC business terminal. Mazor, who had been working with Ted Hoff on the development of the Intel 4004, proposed that a one-chip programmable microprocessor might be less cumbersome and ultimately more cost effective than building a custom logic chipset. CTC agreed and development work began on the chip, which at the time was known as the 1201.
TI was able to make samples of the 1201 based on Intel drawings, calling it the TMX 1795. These proved to be buggy and were rejected. Intel's own versions were delayed. CTC decided to re-implement the new version of the terminal using serial discrete TTL instead of waiting for a single-chip CPU. The new system was released as the Datapoint 2200 in the spring of 1970, with their first sale to General Mills on 25 May 1970. CTC paused development of the 1201 after the 2200 was released, as it was no longer needed. Later in early 1971, Seiko approached Intel, expressing an interest in using the 1201 in a scientific calculator, likely after seeing the success of the simpler 4004 used by Busicom in their business calculators. A small re-design followed, under the leadership of Federico Faggin, the designer of the 4004, now project leader of the 1201, expanding from a 16-pin to 18-pin design, and the new 1201 was delivered to CTC in late 1971.
By that point, CTC had once again moved on, this time to the parallel-architecture Datapoint 2200 II, which was faster than the 1201. CTC voted to end their involvement with the 1201, leaving the design's intellectual property to Intel instead of paying the $50,000 contract. Intel renamed it the 8008 and put it in their catalog in April 1972 priced at US$120 (equivalent to $902 in 2024). This renaming tried to ride off the success of the 4004 chip, by presenting the 8008 as simply a 4 to 8 port, but the 8008 is not based on the 4004. The 8008 went on to be a commercially successful design. This was followed by the popular Intel 8080, and then the hugely successful Intel x86 family.
In the UK, a team at S. E. Laboratories Engineering (EMI) led by Tom Spink in 1972 built a microcomputer based on a pre-release sample of the 8008. Joe Hardman extended the chip with an external stack. This, among other things, gave it power-fail save and recovery. Joe also developed a direct screen printer. The operating system was written using a meta-assembler developed by L. Crawford and J. Parnell for a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11. The operating system was burnt into a PROM. It was interrupt-driven, queued, and based on a fixed page size for programs and data.