Intel's Accidental Revolution

The original microprocessor, the Intel 4004, celebrated its anniversary on Nov 14th. This is a good article describing the early years, and the fact that, at first, Intel didn't think the microprocessor would be more than an interesting sideshow!

Ah, how times change ...

I myself have wondered how things would have turned out if the Motorola-based design for the PC had been selected by IBM, rather than the 8088-based thing .. .. ..

What if?

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001

Answers

From the CNet article:

By the time Intel finished the 4004, Busicom [the Japanese calculator company that had originally contracted for the chip] wanted a discount. Intel made a counteroffer: It would drastically cut the contract price if Busicom would grant Intel a license to freely sell the chip outside the calculator market. Busicom agreed.

Whoops.

Whoops, indeed. :)

(Sortof like IBM absently agreeing, almost as an aside, that Bill Gates and Paul Allen could retain ownership of that little MS-DOS thingie that they'd written for the PC ...)

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2001

Come to the special place. You can learn the real story there.

Silly Silly, Paul and Bill did not write MS-Dose, they bought it from Seattle Computer Works.

This seems to be a dead board. Close it down. Everyone move to the special place. There is lots of fun there. Learn the real story too.

-- Anonymous, November 23, 2001