The first microprocessor
In the mid 1940s, John Von Neumann, a brilliant mathematician at Princeton University, conceived a theoretical machine in which binary logic and arithmetic could work together in storing detailed programs and performing complex calculations.
Von Neumann demonstrated that one could encode instructions to the machine in the same language used for the data it processed.
This great advance meant that a computer could read instructions, accept data, perform calculations, and store results all in a single code.
These ideas pointed the way toward the design, construction and operation of units that can be employed separately or combined for greater and flexibility.
They also focused attention on the newly developed integrated circuits in which very small, highly reliable components could store and process digital information.
Finally, Von, Neumann’s and receiving information to and from other computers. The modern computer network incorporating many diverse computing elements is one outcome.
In the 45 years since ENIAC, computers have become bigger, faster and more versatile. They pervade all aspect of business, government, communication, education, and science.
The last 25 years have seen an equally rapid development of the smallest computers the so-called
microcomputers.
It started in 1969 when Marcian E. Hoff of the Intel Corporation was working with a group of Japanese engineers designing the logic for a family of calculators.
To avoid the complexity of their approach, he proposed “a general purpose computer programmed to be calculator.”
Hoff and Stanley Mazor then developed the architecture of an IC computer.
In 1973, Intel filed for a patent on Hoff’s device and the patent as issued in 1974. So called “single chip microcomputers” are completely contained in one integrated circuit. In general however, a microcomputer consist of a microprocessor as the control unit and several other IC chips providing memory and data handling functions.
Those first
microprocessors were too feeble to power anything resembling a personal computer, But they were and still are powerful enough to drive pocket calculators and control machines performing simple tasks. They have become, like the motor, a tool for every use. Millions are sold each year to operate home burglar alarms, remote television controllers, programmers for videocassette recorders, and dozens of toys,
The first microprocessor
