Processors

The Best Vista Notebooks

2007-04-27T12:44:00.000+05:00

Right now could be a great time to splurge on a laptop, given that many come with Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system to sweeten the deal. But is the new OS reason enough to jump now, or should you hang on to your trusty Windows XP laptop for a while longer?To find out, we rounded up 15 Vista-equipped laptops from Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, HP, Lenovo, Micro Express, and Toshiba, in two categories: desktop-replacement models powerful enough to serve as your Primary PC, and ultraportables weighing less than 5 pounds. We tested speed and battery life and carefully evaluated screens, keyboards, and other vital features.We ranked the best five notebooks in each category and awarded Best Buys to the $2301 HP Pavilion dv9000t, a desktop replacement, and the $2150 Dell XPS M1210, an ultraportable. The jazzed-up dv9000t is a snazzy multimedia laptop with a 17-inch screen and designer exterior, while the M1210 is Dell at its best in a 4.9-pound package complete with a dedicated entertainment interface, smoking speed, and great battery life.This roundup also marks the debut of WorldBench 6 Beta 2, the latest version of PC World's test suite for computers. Our PC World Test Center team refreshed the benchmark with Vista support and expanded tests that give multicore systems a workout. We also improved our battery test with a new automated script that rotates simulated typing with full-screen DVD-quality videos. (In view of its various updates, of course, WorldBench 6 Beta 2 scores are not comparable to previous WorldBench 5 results.) Visit PC World Test Center InfoCenter for more information.So what can you expect from this first batch of Vista-enabled portables? Though graphically busy and a memory hog, Vista and its Aero 3D environment look great and run well on these suitably powerful laptops; most models in our roundup came with 2GB of memory. If you buy a Vista notebook now, however, you'll encounter more problems with hardware and software compatibility than you would have with an early Windows XP laptop; for example, some docking stations currently disable Aero. But most sources of incompatibility are identical to those you'd run into with a Vista desktop PC, and they should soon fade as vendors update their drivers and software applications

Sony Laptops

2007-04-20T15:04:00.000+05:00

Experience the best in Media handling on the Sony VAIO VGN AR21S with Windows XP Media Center pre-installed, featuring built in wireless networking and Bluetooth connectivity. Get your work done fast using the Intel Core 2 Duo processor (CPU) and take advantage of the NVidia GeForce Go7600 Video Chipset. See it all on the bright 17 inch display.

With a 200GB Hard Disk the Sony VAIO VGN AR21S has plenty of storage space for all your Digital media, documents and software. The Sony VAIO VGN AR21S is equipped with a Blu-Ray BD-RE.

Processor:

Intel_Core_2_Duo,

Memory:

2048MB RAM

Hard Drive:

200GB Hard Disk Drive

Display:

17 inch TFT display

Video Chipset:

nVidia GeForce Go7600, 256MB

Optical Drive:

Blu-Ray BD-RE

OS Version:

Windows XP Media Center

Wireless LAN:

Wireless LAN 802.11abg upto 54Mbps

Bluetooth:

Built-in-Bluetooth

Weight:

3.80 Kg

Windows Vista

2007-04-20T14:20:00.001+05:00

Windows Vista is a line of graphical operating systems used on personal computers, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, Tablet PCs, and media centers. Prior to its announcement on July 22, 2005, Windows Vista was known by its codename "Longhorn". Development was completed on November 8, 2006; over the following three months it was released in stages to computer hardware and software manufacturers, business customers, and retail channels. On January 30, 2007, it was released worldwide to the general public, and was made available for purchase and downloading from Microsoft's web site.The release of Windows Vista comes more than five years after the introduction of its predecessor, Windows XP, making it the longest time span between two releases of Microsoft Windows.

Windows Vista contains hundreds of new features; some of the most significant include an updated graphical user interface and visual style dubbed Windows Aero, improved searching features, new multimedia creation tools such as Windows DVD Maker, and completely redesigned networking, audio, print, and display sub-systems. Vista also aims to increase the level of communication between machines on a home network using peer-to-peer technology, making it easier to share files and digital media between computers and devices. For developers, Vista includes version 3.0 of the .NET Framework, which aims to make it significantly easier for developers to write high-quality applications than with the traditional Windows API.

Microsoft's primary stated objective with Windows Vista, however, has been to improve the state of security in the Windows operating system. One common criticism of Windows XP and its predecessors has been their commonly exploited security vulnerabilities and overall susceptibility to malware, viruses and buffer overflows. In light of this, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced in early 2002 a company-wide 'Trustworthy Computing initiative' which aims to incorporate security work into every aspect of software development at the company. Microsoft stated that it prioritized improving the security of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 above finishing Windows Vista, thus delaying its completion.^[5]

Windows Vista has been the target of a number of negative assessments by various groups. Criticism of Windows Vista has included protracted development time, more restrictive licensing terms, the inclusion of a number of new Digital Rights Management technologies aimed at restricting the copying of protected digital media, and the usability of other new features such as User Account Control.

Microsoft Sent A Free Laptop With Windows Vista

2007-04-20T14:04:00.000+05:00

*** I’ve decided to auction off the laptop on eBay and donate the proceeds to EFF. ***

Ok, so yeah, I’ve been blogging about Microsoft quite a bit lately. I guess their marketing people are doing their job well, since the launch of Windows Vista is next month. Speaking of which, on December 20th I received an email from Edelman, the PR firm that is handling the launch of Windows Vista, letting me know that Microsoft is sending me a “present” in the form of a laptop with Windows Vista installed on it, “no strings attached”.

I’m not sure how I was selected to be one of the people receiving this (I’m assuming there are others, but I haven’t come across any yet). It could be that they are reaching out to bloggers who are Mac users (I switched to a Mac back when OS X came out) or it might just be that people I know who work for Microsoft or other influential bloggers who recommended me.

So, today the laptop arrived (here are some photos) and it wasn’t just some generic laptop, but a really cool, supercompact Acer Ferrari 1000 12.1” notebook, with an 1.80GHz AMD Turion 64×2 with 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a SATA 160GB hard drive. I assumed that they would send a fairly decent machine, since they wouldn’t want cheap hardware to make their OS look bad, but this was a nice surprise. Also, they just didn’t install the basic Windows Vista, but Windows Vista Ultimate, the top-end edition of Vista for business and entertainment users.

Inside the laptop was another note from Loki, identical to the one that came with Vanishing Point Game puzzle box, so that seems to confirm that it was also related to the Windows Vista launch.

One of the things I wanted to check out regarding Windows Vista is how well it would run under Parallels Desktop for Mac (my preferred way of running Windows) or Boot Camp, but it looks like I’ll have to wait for that, since Windows Vista came pre-installed on this laptop, without a separate install disk.

Ok, I’ll report back later on once I’ve had a chance to setup the laptop, configure Windows Vista and play around with a it a bit. Hey, maybe Apple will send me a MacBook with Leopard for a side-by-side comparison. Yeah, right.

Laptops

2007-04-20T14:01:00.000+05:00

Laptops with screens typically less than 12 inches diagonally and a weight of less than 1.7kg. Their keyboards are usually not full-size. Their primary audience is usually business travelers, who need small, light laptops. Ultraportables are often very expensive, have extended battery and/or battery life, house power-saving CPUs and almost always have integrated graphics.

Thin-and-lights: Laptops usually weighing in between 1.8kg and 2.8kg with a screen size of between 12 and 14 inches diagonally. Examples of this variety: the Sony VAIO FJ, Apple MacBook and Dell XPS M1210.

Medium-sized laptops: These usually have screens of 14 - 15.4 inches diagonally and a weight of around 3-3.5kg. They usually sacrifice a little computing power for smaller dimensions and longer battery life, although the length and width are usually determined by the screen size.

Desktop replacement computers: Powerful laptops meant to be mainly used in a fixed location and infrequently carried out due to their weight and size; the latter provides more space for powerful components and a big screen, usually measuring 17-20 inches. Desktop replacements tend to have limited battery life, rarely exceeding three hours, because the hardware is not optimized for efficient power usage.

Related devices

Laptops can be understood as a particular point on the continuum of more or less portable computing devices: the point at which the device is large enough to use substantially the same software as a desktop machine, but small enough to be support Mobile computing. Other points on the continuum include:

Transportables: Computers which can easily be moved from place to place, but cannot be used while in transit, usually because they require AC power. The most famous example is the Osborne 1. A transportable, like a laptop, can run desktop software; but it does not support mobile computing.

Tablets: Computers shaped like slates or (paper) notebooks, with touchscreen interfaces. As of 2007, the most common subcategory is the Tablet PC, which is essentially a laptop with a touchscreen. Some tablets have no keyboard; others, called "convertibles", have a keyboard which can be folded behind the screen. A tablet supports mobile computing, and, commonly, can run some desktop software (possibly with modification), but not all.

Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPCs): Very small Tablet PCs.

Internet tablets: Internet appliances in tablet form. An internet tablet supports mobile computing, but usually does not run any desktop software.

Personal digital assistants (PDAs): Small computers, usually pocket-sized, usually with limited functionality. A PDA supports mobile computing, but almost never runs any desktop software.

Handheld computers: A high-end PDA or small tablet.

Smartphone: A handheld or PDA with an integrated cellphone.

As will be clear, these categories are blurry at times. For example, the OQO UPC is a PDA-sized Tablet PC; the Apple eMate had the clamshell form factor of a laptop, but ran PDA software. The HP Omnibook line of laptops included some devices small enough to be called handheld computers. The hardware of the Nokia 770 Internet tablet is essentially the same as that of a PDA such as the Zaurus 6000; the only reason it's not called a PDA is that it doesn't have PIM software. On the other hand, both the 770 and the Zaurus can run some desktop Linux software, usually with modifications.

Intel 8085

2007-04-08T19:56:00.000+05:00

The Intel 8085 was an 8-bit microprocessor made by Intel in the mid-1970s. It was binary compatible with the more-famous Intel 8080 but required less supporting hardware, thus allowing simpler and less expensive microcomputer systems to be built.

The "5" in the model number came from the fact that the 8085 required only a +5-volt (V) power supply rather than the +5V, -5V and +12V supplies the 8080 needed. Both processors were sometimes used in computers running the CP/M operating system, and the 8085 later saw use as a microcontroller (much by virtue of its component count reducing feature). Both designs were eclipsed for desktop computers by the compatible but more capable Zilog Z80, which took over most of the CP/M computer market as well as taking a large share of the booming home computer market in the early-to-mid-1980s. The 8085 had a very long life as a controller. Once designed into such products as the DECTape controller card in the late 1970s, it continued to serve for new production throughout the life span of those products (generally many times longer than the new manufacture lifespan of desktop computers).

CPU Architecture

The 8085 Architecture follows the Von_Neumann_architecture, with a 16bit address bus, and a 8bit data bus.

Registers:

The 8085 can access 2¹⁶ (= 65,536) individual 8-bit memory locations, or in other words, its address space is 64 KiB. Unlike some other microprocessors of its era, it has a separate address space for up to 2^8 (=256) I/O ports. It also has a built in register array which are usually labeled A(Accumulator), B, C, D, E, H, and L. Further special-purpose registers are the 16-bit Program Counter (PC), Stack Pointer (SP), and 8-bit flag register F. The microprocessor has three maskable interrupts (RST 7.5, RST 6.5 and RST 5.5), one Non-Maskable interrupt (TRAP), and one externally serviced interrupt (INTR). The RST n.5 interrupts refer to actual pins on the processor—a feature which permitted simple systems to avoid the cost of a separate interrupt controller chip.

Buses:

Address bus — 16 line bus accessing 2¹⁶ memory locations (64 KiB) of memory.
Data bus — 8 line bus accessing one 8-bit byte of data in one operation. Data bus width is the traditional measure of processor bit designations, as opposed to address bus width, resulting in the 8-bit microprocessor designation.
Control buses — Carries the essential signals for various operations.

Intel produced a series of development systems for the 8080 and 8085, known as the Personal Development System. The original PDS was a large box (in the Intel corporate blue colour) which included a CPU and monitor, and used 8 inch floppy disks. It ran the ISIS operating system and could also operate an emulator pod and EPROM programmer. The later iPDS was a much more portable unit featuring a small green screen and a 5¼ inch floppy disk drive, and ran the ISIS-II operating system. It could also accept a second 8085 processor, allowing a limited form of multi-processor operation where both CPUs shared the screen, keyboard and floppy disk drive. In addition to an 8080/8085 assembler, Intel produced a number of compilers including PL/M-80 and Pascal languages, and a set of tools for linking and statically locating programs to enable them to be burnt into EPROMs and used in embedded systems.

The 8085 as designed was upward-compatible in instruction set to the 8080, but had extensions to support new hardware (principally the RST n.5 interrupts) and to provide more efficient code. The hardware support changes were announced and supported, but the software upgrades were not supported by the assembler, user manual or any other means. At times it was claimed they were not tested when that was false.

The 8085 can accommodate slower memories through externally generated Wait states (pin 35, READY), and also has provisions for Direct Memory Access (DMA) using HOLD and HLDA signals (pins 39 and 38).

The 8085 runs on a 6.14 MHz crystal, connected to X1 and X2 (pins 1 and 2). There is divide by 2 counter in the 8085 causing it to actually run at 3.07MHz. A higher speed selection from the same production lots runs at 5 MHz.

The 8085 processor has found marginal use in small scale computers up to the 21st century. The CMOS version 80C85 of the NMOS/HMOS 8085 processor has/had several manufacturers, and some versions (eg. Tundra Semiconductor Corporation's CA80C85B) have additional functionality, eg. extra machine code instructions. One niche application for the rad-hard version of the 8085 has been in on-board instrument data processors for several NASA and ESA space physics missions in the 1990's and early 2000's, including CRRES, Polar, FAST, Cluster, HESSI, and THEMIS. The Swiss company SAIA used the 8085 and the 8085-2 as the CPUs of their PCA1 line of programmable logic controllers during the 1980s.

Educational Use

In many engineering schools in India, Germany and Greece the 8085 processor is used in introductory microprocessor courses.

Simulators

8085 Simulators exist aplenty for educational use. One such, is the GNUSim8085 which works on GNU/Linux and Windows machines.

Intel 8080

2007-04-08T19:53:00.000+05:00

The Intel 8080 was an early microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. The 8-bit CPU was released in April 1974 running at 2 MHz, and is generally considered to be the first truly usable microprocessor CPU design.

Programming model

The Intel 8080 was the successor to the Intel 8008; this was due to its being assembly language source-compatible, since it used the same instruction set developed by Computer Terminal Corporation. The 8080's large 40 pin DIP packaging permitted it to provide a 16-bit address bus and an 8-bit data bus, allowing easy access to 64 kibibytes of memory.

Registers

The processor had seven 8-bit registers, six of which could be combined into three 16-bit register pairs (BC, DE and HL). It also had the 8-bit accumulator, the 16-bit stack pointer to memory (replacing the 8008's internal stack), and a 16-bit program counter.

Commands

Most of the 8-bit operations were possible between the accumulator and either one of the registers or the memory cell, indexed by the 16-bit value of the register pair HL. Moving operations were supported between any two registers, or between any register and the HL-indexed memory cell. Due to the highly regular machine code format for MOV commands, the command system also had strange commands to move a byte from a given register into the same register (MOV A,A , for instance). These commands were seldom used, however, unless programmed delays were needed. The command to move from the HL-indexed memory cell into the same memory cell (i.e., MOV M, M) always halted the processor until the external reset or interrupt signals were received. Thus instead of MOV M, M this command was marked as HLT (halt) and used for this purpose, when required.

All processor commands were coded by one byte, but some of them were followed by one or two bytes of data, a memory address, or a port number. The register-to-register data-move commands were all coded by one byte, making up about a quarter of the commands in the processor-command system. The processor had 8 commands to call the subroutines located at the fixed addresses at the beginning or the address space (RST). These commands were frequently used in the interrupt-handling or system-library calls.

The most sophisticated command (and the longest to execute) was XTHL, which was used for exchanging the register pair HL with the value stored at the address indicated by the stack pointer.

16-bit operations

Despite the fact that the 8080 was generally an 8-bit processor, it was also able to load immediate any register pair (LXI), increment or decrement any register pair (INX, DCX), add the register pairs (DAD), switch HL with DE (XCHG) and perform the 16-bit arithmetical shift (DAD H) with one command. Hence some 16-bit operations were already possible.

Input/output scheme

Input output port space

The 8080 supported up to 256 input/output (I/O) ports, accessed from programs via dedicated I/O instructions—each instruction taking an I/O port address as its operand. This scheme—using a separate I/O address space—is now less commonly used than memory mapping of I/O ports/devices. At the time of the 8080's launch, this I/O mapping scheme was seen as an advantage, as it freed up the processor's limited number of address pins for the memory address space. In most other CPU architectures, however, the mapping of I/O ports in a common address space both for memory and I/O, gave a simpler instruction set; no need for separate I/O instructions. The 8080-style I/O port scheme continued into the Intel 8085 and x86 families of microprocessors.

Stack space

One of the bits in the processor state word (see below) was indicating that the processor is accessing data from the stack. Using this signal, it was possible to implement a separate stack memory space. However this feature was seldom used.

Shared memory implementations

The 8080 has shared control signals for reading and writing both memory and I/O ports. In basic computers, the 8080 was frequently connected using a shared memory map, accessing ports as memory cells. In such machines, the specialised I/O commands were either not used or, in applications with little memory, were used knowing that the processor would clone the 8-bit port address to a higher address byte (IN 0x05 would produce 0x0505 on the 16-bit address bus).

The internal state word

For more advanced systems, during one phase of its working loop the processor set its "internal state byte" on the data bus. This byte contains flags which indicate whether the memory or I/O port is accessed and whether it was necessary to handle an interrupt.

The interrupt system state (enabled or disabled) was also output on a separate pin. For simple systems, where the interrupts were not used, it is possible to find cases where this pin is used as an additional single-bit output port (the popular Radio86RK computer made in USSR, for instance).

Pin usage

The address bus had its own 16 pins, and the data bus had 8 pins that were possible to use without any multiplexing. Using the two additional pins (read and write signals), it was possible to assemble simple microprocessor devices very easily. Only the separate IO space, interrupts and DMA required additional chips to decode the processor pin signals. However the processor load capacity was limited, and even simple computers frequently contained bus amplifiers.

The processor required three power sources (-5, +5 and +12 Volt(V)) and two non-interlacing high-amplitude synchronization signals. However at least the late Soviet version КР580ВМ80А was able to work with the single +5 V power source, +12 V pin being connected to the same +5 V and -5 V pin - to the ground. The processor consumed about 1.3 watts (W) of power.

The pinout table, from the chip's accompanying documentation, described the pins as follows:

Pin number	Signal	Type	Comment
1	A10	Output	Address bus 10
2	GND	-	Ground
3	D4	Bidirectional	Bidirectional data bus. The processor also transiently sets here the "processor state", providing information that the processor is currently doing: D0 reading interrupt command. In response to the interrupt signal, the processor was reading and executing a single arbitrary command with this flag raised. Normally the supporting chips provided the subroutine call command (CALL or RST), transferring control to the interrupt handling code. D1 reading (low level means writing) D2 accessing stack (probably the separate stack memory space was initially planned) D3 doing nothing, has been halted by the HLT command D4 writing data to the output port D5 reading the first byte of the executable command D6 reading data from the input port D7 reading data from memory
4	D5
5	D6
6	D7
7	D3
8	D2
9	D1
10	D0
11	-5 V	-	The -5 V power supply. This must be the first power source connected and the last disconnected, otherwise the processor will be damaged.
12	R	Input	Reset. The signal forces execution of commands, located at address 0000. The content of other processor registers is not modified. This is an inverting input (the active level being logical 0)
13	DMA	Input	Direct memory access request. The processor is requested to switch the data and address bus to the high impedance ("disconnected") state.
14	INT	Input	Interrupt request
15	CLC2	Input	The second phase of the clock generator signal
16	ACK INT	Output	The processor had two commands for setting the 0 or 1 level on this pin. The pin normally was supposed to be used for the interrupt control. However in the simple computers it was sometimes used just as the single bit output port for various purposes.
17	RD	Output	Read (the processor reads from memory or input port)
18	WR	Output	Write (the processor writes to memory or output port). This is the inverted output, the active level being logical zero.
19	S	Output	The active level indicates that the processor has set the "state word" on the data bus. The various bits of this state word provided the additional information for supporting the separate address and memory spaces, interrupts and direct memory access. This signal required to pass through additional logic before it could be used to write the processor state word from the data bus into some register.
20	5 V	-	The + 5 V power supply

21	ACK DMA	Output	Direct memory access confirmation. The processor switches data and address pins into the high impedance state, allowing other device to manipulate the bus
22	CLC1	Input	The first phase of the clock generator signal
23	RDY	Input	Wait. With this signal it was possible to suspend processor's work. It was also used to support the hardware-based step-by step debugging mode.
24	WAIT	Output	Wait (indicates that the processor is in the waiting state)
25	A0	Output	Address bus
26	A1
27	A2
28	12 V	-	The +12 V power supply. This must be the last connected and first disconnected power source.
29	A3	Output	The address bus, can switch into high impedance state on demand
30	A4
31	A5
32	A6
33	A7
34	A8
35	A9
36	A15
37	A12
38	A13
39	A14
40	A11

The 8080 integrated circuit was manufactured in a NMOS process using a minimum feature size of 6 µm. A single layer of metal was used to interconnect the approximately 6000 transistors in the design (the higher resistance polysilicon layer required to implement transistor gates was also used for some interconnects). The die size was approximately 20 mm².

Applications and successors

The 8080 was used in many early microcomputers, such as the MITS Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080, forming the basis for machines running the CP/M operating system (the later, fully compatible and more capable, Zilog Z80 processor would capitalize on this, with Z80 & CP/M becoming the dominant CPU & OS combination of the period much like x86 & MS-DOS for the PC a decade later). The first single-board microcomputer was based on the 8080. The company Landis & Gyr used it on its electrical metering data acquisition equipment, the Datagyr FAB during the early eighties.

Shortly after the launch of the 8080, the Motorola 6800 competing design was introduced, and after that, the MOS Technology 6502 variation of the 6800. Zilog introduced the Z80, which had a compatible machine-language instruction set and initially used the same assembly language as the 8080, but for legal reasons, Zilog developed a syntactically-different alternative assembly language for the Z80. At Intel, the 8080 was followed by the compatible and electrically more elegant 8085, and later by the assembly language compatible 16-bit 8086 and then the 8/16-bit 8088, which was selected by IBM for its new PC to be launched in 1981. The 8080, via its ISA, thus made a lasting impact on computer history.

The Soviet Union manufactured a complete 8080 analog named KP580ИK80 (later marked as KP580BM80), where even the pins were placed identically. This processor was the base of the Radio86RK (Радио 86РК in Russian), probably the most popular amateur single-board computer in the Soviet Union. Radio86RK's predecessor was the Micro-80 (Микро-80 in Russian), and its successor the Orion-128 (Орион-128 in Russian) which had a graphical display. Both were built on the KP580 processor. According to some sources, the Soviet analog had two undocumented instructions, specific to itself; however, these were not widely known.

Industry change

The 8080 also changed how computers were created. When the 8080 was introduced, computer systems were usually created by computer manufacturers such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Hewlett Packard, or IBM. A manufacturer would produce the entire computer, including processor, terminals, and system software such as compilers and operating system. The 8080 was actually designed for just about any application except a complete computer system. Hewlett Packard developed the HP 2640 series of smart terminals around the 8080. The HP 2647 was a terminal which ran BASIC on the 8080. Microsoft would create the first popular programming language for the 8080, and would later acquire DOS for the IBM-PC.

As the 8080 evolved into the largely compatible x86 family, PCs evolved into workstations and servers of 16, 32 and 64 bits, with advanced memory protection, segmentation, and multiprocessing features, blurring the difference between small and large computers (the 80286 and 80386's protected mode were important in doing so). The size of chips has grown so that the size and power of large x86 chips is not much different from high end architecture chips, and a common strategy to produce a very large computer is to network many x86 processors.

The basic architecture of the 8080 and its successors has replaced many proprietary midrange and mainframe computers, and withstood challenges of technologies such as RISC. Most computer manufacturers have abandoned producing their own processors below the highest performance points. Though x86 may not be the most elegant, or theoretically most efficient design, the sheer market force of so many dollars going into refining a design has made the x86 family today, and will remain for some time, the dominant processor architecture, even bypassing Intel's attempts to replace it with incompatible architectures such as the iAPX 432 and Itanium.

Intel 8008

2007-04-08T19:50:00.000+05:00

The Intel 8008 was an early microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel and introduced in April, 1972. The 8008, originally codenamed 1201, was originally commissioned by Computer Terminal Corporation for use in its Datapoint 2200 programmable terminal, but because the chip was delivered late and did not meet CTC's performance goals, the chip was not used in the 2200. An agreement between Intel and CTC permitted Intel to market the chip to other customers.

Initial versions of the 8008 ran at 0.5 MHz, later increased to 0.8 MHz. While a little slower in terms of instructions per second than the 4-bit Intel 4004 and Intel 4040, the fact that the 8008 processed data eight bits at a time and could access significantly more RAM actually gave it 3 to 4 times the true processing power of the 4-bit chips.

The instruction set of the 8008 and subsequent Intel CISC CPUs were heavily based on CTC's design.

The chip (limited by its 18 pin DIP packaging) had a single 8-bit bus and required a significant amount of external support logic. For example, the 14-bit address, which could access 16 kibibytes of memory, needed to be latched by some of this logic into an external Memory Address Register (MAR). The 8008 could access 8 input ports and 24 output ports.

For controller and CRT terminal use this was an acceptable design, but it was too difficult to use for most other tasks. A few early computer designs were based on it, but most would use the later and greatly improved Intel 8080 instead.

The 8008 family is also referred to as the MCS-8.

Intel 4040

2007-04-08T19:48:00.000+05:00

The Intel 4040 microprocessor was the successor to the Intel 4004. It was introduced in 1974.

The 4040 was used primarily in games, test, development, and control equipment. The package of the 4040 is more than twice as wide as the 4004 and has 24 pins vs. the 16 of the 4004. The 4040 added 14 instructions, larger stack (8 level), 8 kiB program space, 8 more registers, and interrupt abilities (including shadows of the first 8 registers).

The 4040 family is also referred to as the MCS-40.

New features

Interrupt
Single Step

Extensions

Instruction Set expanded to 60 instructions
Program memory expanded to 8 KiB
Registers expanded to 24
Subroutine stack expanded to 7 levels deep

New support chips

4201 - Clock Generator 500 to 740 kHz using 4 to 5.185 MHz crystals
4308 - 1 KiB ROM
4207 - General Purpose byte Output port
4209 - General Purpose byte Input port
4211 - General Purpose byte I/O port
4289 - Standard Memory Interface (replaces 4008/4009)
4702 - 256 byte UVEPROM
4316 - 2 KiB ROM
4101 - 256 4-bit word RAM

Intel 4004

2007-04-08T19:45:00.000+05:00

The Intel 4004, a 4-bit central processing unit (CPU) released by Intel Corp. in 1971, is widely considered to be the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor. The 4004 employed a 10ì silicon-gate PMOS technology and could execute approximately 60,000 instructions per second.

The 4004 was released in 16-pin CERDIP packaging on November 15th, 1971. The 4004 is the first computer processor designed and manufactured by chip maker Intel, which previously made semiconductor memory chips. The chief designers of the chip were Ted Hoff and Federico Faggin of Intel and Masatoshi Shima of Busicom (later of ZiLOG).

Originally designed for the Japanese company Busicom to be used in their line of calculators (instead of the complex special purpose calculator chipset that Busicom had designed themselves and brought to Intel to have made, which Intel determined was too complex to make with the technology they had at the time), the 4004 was also provided with a family of custom support chips (e.g., each "Program ROM" internally latched for its own use the 4004's 12-bit program address, which allowed 4 KiB memory access from the 4-bit address bus if all 16 ROMs were installed). The 4004 circuit was built of 2,250 transistors, and was followed the next year by the first ever 8-bit microprocessor, the 3,300 transistor 8008 (and the 4040, a revised 4004).

As its fourth entry in the microprocessor market, Intel released the CPU that started the microcomputer revolution — the 8080.

On 15 November 2006, the 35th anniversary of the Intel 4004, Intel celebrated by releasing the chip's schematics, maskworks, and user manual.

A popular myth has it that Pioneer 10, the first spacecraft to leave the solar system, used an Intel 4004 microprocessor. According to Dr. Larry Lasher of Ames Research Center, the Pioneer team did evaluate the 4004, but "it was too new at the time to include in any of the Pioneer projects."

The Intel 4004 CPU had the computing power of the 1946 ENIAC vacuum tube supercomputer, which weighed 30 tons and occupied 167 square metres of floor space.

Technical specifications

Maximum clock speed is 740 kHz
Separate program and data storage (i.e., a Harvard architecture). Contrary to most Harvard architecture designs, however, which use separate buses, the 4004, with its need to keep pin count down, uses a single multiplexed 4-bit bus for transferring:
- 12-bit addresses
- 8-bit instructions
- 4-bit data words
Instruction set contains 46 instructions (of which 41 are 8 bits wide and 5 are 16 bits wide)
Register set contains 16 registers of 4 bits each
Internal subroutine stack is 3 levels deep

4001: 256-byte ROM (256 8-bit program instructions), and one built-in 4-bit I/O port
4002: 40-byte RAM (80 4-bit data words), and one built-in 4-bit output port; the RAM portion of the chip is organized into four "registers" of twenty 4-bit words:
- 16 data words (used for mantissa digits in the original calculator design)
- 4 status words (used for exponent digits and signs in the original calculator design)
4003: 10-bit parallel output shift register for scanning keyboards, displays, printers, etc.
4008: 8-bit address latch for access to standard memory chips, and one built-in 4-bit chip select and I/O port
4009: program and I/O access converter to standard memory and I/O chips.

The Intel 4004 is one of world's most sought-after collectible/antique chips. Of highest value are 4004s that are gold and white, with so-called 'grey traces' visible on the white ceramic (the original package type). As of 2005, such chips have reached around US$1000 each on eBay. The slightly less valuable white and gold chips without grey traces typically reach $300 to $500. Those chips without a 'date code' underneath are earlier versions, and therefore worth slightly more. More recently however, these vintage ICs have been dropping in value due to their relative abundance as the market is now flooded with surplus stock from sellers looking to cash in on the Intel craze.

All of Intel's 4004 data sheets, including the very first data sheet from November 1971, clearly indicate that the minimum clock period is 1350 nanoseconds, which results in a maximum clock speed of 740 kHz. Unfortunately, many apparently reputable web pages and other sources list an incorrect clock speed of 108 kHz; even Intel's own pages on the 4004's history say this. The 4004's minimum instruction cycle time is 10.8 microseconds (8 clock cycles), and it seems most likely that someone in the past confused this with a clock speed. This error has now propagated very widely.
a 4001 ROM+I/O chip cannot be used in a system along with a 4008/4009 pair.