CPU History Museum for Intel CPUs, AMD Processor, Cyrix Microprocessors, Microcontrollers and more.
Back in the late 1970 s and early 1980 s Sandia National Laboratory (in Albuquerque NM USA) began building the capacity to design, fab, and test IC s at scale (packaging was handled by Fairchild and Allied Signal). Why would a National Laboratory need the capacity to do this? To provide components that were not available commercially. In [ ] The post Sandia National Labs SA3000 8085 CPU first…
Back in 1974 the US Air Force saw the beginnings of a problem as the switch to digital microprocessor controls took over. Fearful of being stuck with many unique systems requiring extensive software and hardware support, the Air Force Aeronautical Systems Division (ASD) wants a standard device that could be applied across the board. Sounds [ ] The post The Forgotten Ones: Actron AM1608 16-bit CPU.…
General Automation was founded in 1968, just prior to the beginning of the microprocessor boom of the 1970 s. They were founded by Burt Yale, a former aerospace engineer from the Gemini space program, and a former exec of Honeywell (Larry Goshorn). By 1972 they went public, and by 1974 were the 4th largest minicomputer make [ ] The post The General Automation GA-16 16-bit CPU first appeared on The…
There are always interesting surprises when collecting CPUs, and anything really. There are those chips that are unicorns, or white whales, spoke of, maybe even documented but never (or almost never) seen. For example Hitachi made a copy of the Intel 4004 CPU. Its documented, and I think I have seen one in my life, [ ] The post Unknown and Unobtainable – Mystery Chips first appeared on The CPU…
Copy It Around the same time that Nikita Khrushchev declared his support for building Zelenograd. A Soviet student named Boris Malin returned from a year studying in Pennsylvania with a small device in his luggage – a Texas Instruments SN-51, one first integrated circuits sold in the United States. A thin man with dark hair [ ] The post Soviet’s First Planar Integrated Circuits first appeared on…
It s been a long while since I have been able to post/write, having a new baby apparently does that (I missed that in the datasheet). Since I have neglected posting, or forgotten, lets continues with The Forgotten Ones This brings us to 1971, Fairchild, after losing many employees in 1968-69 who went on to start [ ] The post Fairchild PPS-25: 4-bit CPU for 25-digit precision first appeared on The…
In 1974 National Semiconductor introduced what is arguably the first 16-bit microprocessor (it had a 8-bit mode as well which was more efficient but could run 16-bits as well). This chip was made on a PMOS process and ran at 1.3MHz. In some ways it was ahead of its time, there wasn t a ton of [ ] The post National Semi. PACE/INS8900 Test Boards first appeared on The CPU Shack Museum .
About a year ago Mats Danielson from Stockholm Sweden contacted the CPU Shack about an interesting project, documenting the history of Philips Data Systems, a former powerhouse of European computing. Previously we wrote about the SPC16 micro used in some of these, but Mats has done a complete history. His book is available for free [ ] The post The Rise and Fall of Philips Data Systems first…
In 1966, American engineer and inventor Robert Dennard invented dynamic RAM cells – single-transistor cells, each bit of information is stored in the form of an electric charge of a capacitor. By that time, MOS technology was already capable of creating capacitors. The presence or absence of a charge on a capacitor represents one or [ ] The post The First Mass Produced DRAM of the Soviet Union…
In the 1990s the ESA began a project to develop their own, open source, easily usable processor for space applications. Before this the ESA had used mainly MIL-STD-1750A processors, both American made ones, or direct copies their of, such as the Dynex MAS281, a clone of the McDonnel Douglas MDC281. The ESA explored many different [ ] The post SPARCs in Space: The Cobham UT700 Leon3FT Processor…