> Intel supplied the ammunition for a
>revolution: cheap computers. The high level of integration was what
>enabled them to make it cheap, and they commercialized it. The level of
>integration is the salient feature of the chip, but not the main feature
>of the important event.
It *certainly* wasn't obvious in the mid-70's, when Intel had picked
up its pieces and put together a microprocessor chip (the 8080A) which cost
a significant fraction of what a new car cost at the time, that
VLSI CPU's were going to be replacing boards full of TTL logic.
It was Intel's competitors - notably Motorola and especially MOS
Technology - who were responsible for driving microprocessor CPU costs
to the hundred-dollar-level and below. That's when times really began
a-changin'.
Tim.
Received on Tue Oct 06 1998 - 14:21:26 BST
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