The Intel 4004 microprocessor: what constituted invention?

Author

Aspray, William

Author_Institution

Comput. Res. Assoc., Washington, DC, USA

Volume

19

Issue

3

fYear

1997

Firstpage

4

Lastpage

15

Abstract

Investigates the context for the development of one of the earliest microprocessors, the Intel 4004. It considers the contributions made by Intel employees, most notably Marcian E. “Ted” Hoff, Jr. and Federico Faggin, and the contributions other people made to this development who are not generally known, most notably Tadashi Sasaki and Masatoshi Shima. This paper represents a case study of how corporate and national cultures affect technological development and of the many aspects of invention, including conceptualization, logical design, engineering, fabrication, capitalization and marketing

Keywords

design engineering; history; integrated circuit manufacture; logic design; marketing; microprocessor chips; personnel; Federico Faggin; Intel 4004 microprocessor; Intel employees; Marcian E. Hoff, Jr.; Masatoshi Shima; Tadashi Sasaki; Ted Hoff; capitalization; case study; conceptualization; corporate culture; engineering; fabrication; invention; logical design; marketing; national culture; technological development; Circuits; Design engineering; Electronics industry; Fabrication; History; Logic devices; Microprocessors; Paper technology; Power engineering and energy; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Annals of the History of Computing, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1058-6180

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/85.601727

Filename

601727