A microprocessor control program (embedded software) can be tailored to fit the needs of a

product line, allowing upgrades in performance with minimal redesign of the product. Unique
features can be implemented in product line's various models at negligible production cost.
Microprocessor control of a system can provide control strategies that would be impractical to
implement using electromechanical controls or purpose-built electronic controls. For example,
an internal combustion engine's control system can adjust ignition timing based on engine
speed, load, temperature, and any observed tendency for knocking—allowing the engine to
operate on a range of fuel grades.

History[edit]
See also: Microprocessor chronology
The advent of low-cost computers on integrated circuits has transformed modern society.
General-purpose microprocessors in personal computers are used for computation, text
editing, multimedia display, and communication over the Internet. Many more microprocessors
are part of embedded systems, providing digital control over myriad objects from appliances to
automobiles to cellular phones and industrial process control. Microprocessors perform binary
operations based on Boolean logic, named after George Boole. The ability to operate computer
systems using Boolean Logic was first proven in a 1938 thesis by master's student Claude
Shannon, who later went on to become a professor. Shannon is considered "The Father of
Information Theory". In 1951 Microprogramming was invented by Maurice Wilkes at
the University of Manchester, UK, from the realisation that the central processor could be
controlled by a specialised program in a dedicated ROM.[9] Wilkes is also credited with the idea
of symbolic labels, macros and subroutine libraries.[10]
Following the development of MOS integrated circuit chips in the early 1960s, MOS chips
reached higher transistor density and lower manufacturing costs than bipolar integrated
circuits by 1964. MOS chips further increased in complexity at a rate predicted by Moore's law,
leading to large-scale integration (LSI) with hundreds of transistors on a single MOS chip by
the late 1960s. The application of MOS LSI chips to computing was the basis for the first
microprocessors, as engineers began recognizing that a complete computer processor could
be contained on several MOS LSI chips.[11] Designers in the late 1960s were striving to
integrate the central processing unit (CPU) functions of a computer onto a handful of MOS LSI
chips, called microprocessor unit (MPU) chipsets.
While there is disagreement over who invented the microprocessor,[2][12] the first commercially
available microprocessor was the Intel 4004, released as a single MOS LSI chip in 1971.[13] The
single-chip microprocessor was made possible with the development of MOS silicon-
gate technology (SGT).[14] The earliest MOS transistors had aluminium metal gates, which
Italian physicist Federico Faggin replaced with silicon self-aligned gates to develop the first
silicon-gate MOS chip at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968.[14] Faggin later joined Intel and used
his silicon-gate MOS technology to develop the 4004, along with Marcian Hoff, Stanley
Mazor and Masatoshi Shima in 1971.[15] The 4004 was designed for Busicom, which had earlier
proposed a multi-chip design in 1969, before Faggin's team at Intel changed it into a new
single-chip design. Intel introduced the first commercial microprocessor, the 4-bit Intel 4004, in
1971. It was soon followed by the 8-bit microprocessor Intel 8008 in 1972. The MP944 chipset
used in the F-14 Central Air Data Computer in 1970 has also been cited as an early
microprocessor, but was not known to the public until declassified in 1998.
Other embedded uses of 4-bit and 8-bit microprocessors, such as terminals, printers, various
kinds of automation etc., followed soon after. Affordable 8-bit microprocessors with 16-
bit addressing also led to the first general-purpose microcomputers from the mid-1970s on.
The first use of the term "microprocessor" is attributed to Viatron Computer
Systems[16] describing the custom integrated circuit used in their System 21 small computer
system announced in 1968.
Since the early 1970s, the increase in capacity of microprocessors has followed Moore's law;
this originally suggested that the number of components that can be fitted onto a chip doubles
every year. With present technology, it is actually every two years,[17] [obsolete source] and as a result
Moore later changed the period to two years.[18]
First projects[edit]
These projects delivered a microprocessor at about the same time: Garrett
AiResearch's Central Air Data Computer (CADC) (1970), Texas Instruments' TMS 1802NC
(September 1971) and Intel's 4004 (November 1971, based on an earlier
1969 Busicom design). Arguably, Four-Phase Systems AL1 microprocessor was also delivered
in 1969.
Four-Phase Systems AL1 (1969)[edit]
The Four-Phase Systems AL1 was an 8-bit bit slice chip containing eight registers and an
ALU.[19] It was designed by Lee Boysel in 1969.[20][21][22] At the time, it formed part of a nine-chip,
24-bit CPU with three AL1s. It was later called a microprocessor when, in response to 1990s
litigation by Texas Instruments, Boysel constructed a demonstration system where a single
AL1 formed part of a courtroom demonstration computer system, together with RAM, ROM,
and an input-output device.[23]
Garrett AiResearch CADC (1970)[edit]
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Further information: F-14 CADC
In 1968, Garrett AiResearch (who employed designers Ray Holt and Steve Geller) was invited
to produce a digital computer to compete with electromechanical systems then under
development for the main flight control computer in the US Navy's new F-14 Tomcat fighter.
The design was complete by 1970, and used a MOS-based chipset as the core CPU. The
design was significantly (approximately 20 times) smaller and much more reliable than the
mechanical systems it competed against and was used in all of the early Tomcat models. This
system contained "a 20-bit, pipelined, parallel multi-microprocessor". The Navy refused to
allow publication of the design until 1997. Released in 1998, the documentation on the CADC,
and the MP944 chipset, are well known. Ray Holt's autobiographical story of this design and
development is presented in the book: The Accidental Engineer.[24][25]

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