Inventions and Inventors Volume 1 - Online Public Access Catalog

Circuitry of a typical computer chip. (PhotoDisc)
Computer chips / 233
bility of incorporating all the logic circuits of a computer central processing
unit (CPU) into one chip. He began to design a chip called a
“microprocessor,” which, when combined with a chip that would
hold a program and one that would hold data, would become a small,
general-purpose computer. Noyce encouraged Hoff and his associates
to continue his work on the microprocessor, and Busicom contracted
with Intel to produce the chip. Frederico Faggin, who was hired from
Fairchild, did the chip layout and circuit drawings.
In January, 1971, the Intel team finished its first working microprocessor,
the 4004. The following year, Intel made a higher-capacity
microprocessor, the 8008, for Computer Terminals Corporation.
That company contracted with Texas Instruments to produce a chip
with the same specifications as the 8008, which was produced in
June, 1972. Other manufacturers soon produced their own microprocessors.
The Intel microprocessor became the most widely used computer
chip in the budding personal computer industry and may
take significant credit for the PC “revolution” that soon followed.
Microprocessors have become so common that people use them every
day without realizing it. In addition to being used in computers,