35th Anniversary of the Intel 4004

The Intel 4004, introduced in November 1971, was the world's first microprogrammable computer on a chip, or microprocessor. Intended for use in a Busicom calculator, there is little doubt that the 4 bit, 2300 transistor chip launched a electronics revolution, as it was this chip and its immediate successors (including the Intel 8008) that powered the microcomputer explosion which began in the 1970s. In honor of the 35th anniversary of its release, Tim McNerney has created "a fully functional, 130x scale replica of the 4004 microprocessor running the very first software written for the 4004". It will be on display at the Intel Museum, but the his story explaining the recreation can be found at http://www.4004.com.

The Canadian connection to this story is that during the design phase, the engineers responsible for the 4004 contemplated a simpler chip known as the 4005. As Stan Mazor, one of the inventors, recalls in an interview:

And when we were working on the 4004, Ted and I thought it was a little too aggressive and we weren't sure it could be done, so we started with another chip called the 4005 and it was a joint project with MIL, which was an affiliate of Intel in Canada. And so we defined the architecture to be much, much simpler than the 4004 and the idea was the Canadian company MIL would actually design the chip and we'd provide the memories.

According to Mazor, MIL never completed the 4005, but a sample of the chip recently turned up in the York University Computer Museum (YUCoM) collection. This poses a bit of a mystery that curators at YUCoM are working to unravel. Stay tuned!