intel's 4004

Intel's First Microprocessor—the Intel® 4004

Intel® 4004 microprocessor In 2006, Intel marked the 35th anniversary of one of the most significant products in technology history. The Intel® 4004 microprocessor, introduced in November 1971, started an electronics revolution that changed our world. There were no customer-programmable microprocessors on the market before the 4004. It was the first and it was the enabling technology that propelled software into the limelight as a key player in the world of digital electronics design.

Revolutionizing the world of electronics

Busicom* 141-PF printing calculator In 1969 Nippon Calculating Machine Corporation requested Intel design 12 custom chips for its new Busicom* 141-PF printing calculator. Instead of creating a dozen custom chips specifically for the calculator, Engineers Marcian E. "Ted" Hoff, Federico Faggin, and Stanley Mazor, co-inventors of the Intel 4004. Intel's engineers proposed a new design: a family of just four chips, including one that could be programmed for use in a variety of products. MCS-4 Engineers Marcian E. "Ted" Hoff, Federico Faggin, and Stan Mazor came up with a design that involved a set of four chips called the MCS-4. They included a central processing unit (CPU) chip—the 4004, a supporting read-only memory (ROM) chip for the custom applications programs, a random access memory (RAM) chip for processing data, and a shift register chip for input/output (I/O) port. Intel delivered the four chips, and Busicom eventually sold some 100,000 calculators.

Intel introduces the Intel 4004 microprocessor

Intel offered Busicom a lower price for the chips in return for securing the rights to the microprocessor design and the rights to market it for non-calculator applications. Busicom, in financial trouble, agreed.

The Intel ad in the November 15, 1971 issue of Electronic News introduced the Intel 4004 microprocessor and declared "Announcing a new era of integrated electronics." That programmable chip, the Intel 4004, became the first general-purpose microprocessor on the market—a "building block" that engineers could purchase and then customize with software to perform different functions in a wide variety of electronic devices.