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| The Historical Development Of Microprocessors (Brief Overview) |
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| Monday, 25 September 2006 | |
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Page 3 of 4 The architecture of the Microprocessor. The 8080 of Intel and the 6800 of Motorola had quite a few differences in their architecture. From the very early days of developing their first independent processors to the latest developments and advances in this technology, both Intel and Motorola have continued to sustain their original differences. The Intel processors. 
From
the days of their second generation, 8080(8 bit processors), Intel
has advanced the scientific techniques to develop more processors
such as the 8085 (8 bit) and later on the 8086(third generation, 16
bit). This was the microprocessor that was used by IBM in designing
their first series of Personal Computers. Subsequent improvements in
the design and development of microprocessors resulted in models such
as the
Intel also produced a microcontroller which was named the MCS-48.This was somewhere in 1975 or 1976. Faggin of Zilog produced an 8 bit called the Z-80. This was a better 
product than that of Intel.The Motorola Processors
The court decision on naming. There is another interesting point worth mentioning here. In 1994, there was a U.S.court decision which stated that numbers can not be copyrighted. Due to this decision, Intel changed their strategy of using numbers for their chips. Later on processors were named as Pentium etc due to this reason. The latest Centrino Duo is also yet another naming innovation for a microprocessor. Other Manufacturers. While Intel and Motorola are the leaders in manufacturing, microprocessors, there are also several other good companies involved in this. Texas Instruments is one of them. Another is National Semiconductors. There are also several companies in the Far East countries such as Thailand. Their products meet international standards and are quite cheap since labor cost in those countries is far below that of US or Europe, This is one reason why microprocessor based products and devices are becoming very cheap and easily affordable for the common man. No one needs "to break the bank" to buy such devices now. 
T.I,
had some initial failures, while engaged in this field.Inspite of
that they produced a product called the TMS 1000 IN 1974.This was a
microcontroller. This product helped T.I to dominate the field of
scientific calculators.Due to TI's innovative policies in management and marketing, prices of electronic calculators dropped substantially. T.I.was also able to surprise firms such as Intel when they filed for patents. All companies were under the impression that Integrated Circuits need not be patented. In 2005, Apple makes the astonishing announcement that the next generation of their Macintosh computers will work on an Intel processor. |