25 MICROCHIPS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD

KL7AJ

Joined Nov 4, 2008
2,229
Interesting article, the title basically says it all...

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/25chips
Great article. Glad to see the 555 right at the top where it belongs. Surprised there were no PLL chips on there though! There were also no DDS sythesizers...but there was the function generator, an early model.

My all-around favorite was the MC1496....don't know how many radio circuits I designed around that old battle axe!


Eric
 

bertus

Joined Apr 5, 2008
22,270
Hello Bill,

Interesting that these chips shook the world.
My first computer had the Z80 in it.
The TRS80 from Tandy gave me a lot of fun for quite a while.

Greetings,
Bertus
 

beenthere

Joined Apr 20, 2004
15,819
Odd list. Where are the voltage regulators? Why doesn't the Intel 4004 get in as as the first microprocessor, and where is the first 4 banger calculator chip, not to mention the HP scientific calculator chip?
 

Thread Starter

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Did you check the followup article?

The Runners-up: More Earthshaking Chips

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/may09/8814

My own feeling is CPU chips could have been encapsulated in the 4004, after that it was steady progress.

I hadn't thought of the 3 terminal regulator chips, they definately qualify.
 
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