CHIP-SHAPE: Museum celebrates 25 years of smooth sailing for microprocessor

Pauline Bell

Monday, Nov. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

A thumbnail-sized chip revolutionized the computer industry a quarter century ago by bringing technology to the masses.

This week, the 25th anniversary of the microprocessor is being observed at Comdex.

The milestone that changed our lives will be remembered at The Museum at Comdex, a 5,000-square-foot exhibit depicting 25 years of computing discovery and innovation.

Unlike most other events at the gigantic annual computer trade show, entrance to the museum is free, it is open to the public and a must-see for everyone whose lives have been touched by computers.

"We tried to get the kinds of things that have meaning to a large number of people," said Gwen Bell, founding president and adviser-curator of The Computer Museum in Boston which is contributing items to the display.

To that end, displays will include "relics" from the early years of computing -- early microprocessors, calculators, personal computers, storage devices and modems.

Most are considered artifacts "in the sense that they are no longer made and are old technology that's no longer supported -- you can't go out and easily buy (them). We consider those artifacts in that they tell us a lot about the development of computers and microprocessors in the '70s, '80s and what's being done now," said Jodelle French, curator of the Intel Museum in Santa Clara, Calif., which is also participating in the project.

"I think it would be great if some school kids saw it (the Comdex museum) because it really talks about the evolution of the PC that most of them use today," Bell said.

The first microprocessor took computing into a new era of decreased size and increased speed.

Prior to the introduction of the microchip Nov. 15, 1971 by Intel, computers ran on circuit boards comprised of about 12 chips and 2,300 transistors. The microprocessor put the 2,300 transistors on one 1-inch chip, allowing portability and affordability.

"The size of the microprocessor finally enabled the equipment built to be usable," said Comdex spokeswoman Suzanne Lonergan. "It reduced everything -- all of this real estate requiring all of these circuit boards. It took all that technology and put it into one 1-inch-square chip. That allowed hand-held devices and PCs."

It also meant affordability.

"When you're talking about a number of different components -- putting a number of different circuit boards on one 1-inch-square chip, then you no longer are paying for all of that real estate," she said.

The industry's predecessor to the microchip were large mainframe computers which were expensive and could only be purchased and used by governments for census or tax calculations -- or by very large corporations for financial figuring.

The first microchip was designed by Intel Corp. for a Japanese firm, Busicom, which wanted a set of custom logic chips for its programmable calculators. Intel designed a general-purpose chip, the 4004 Microprocesor, that could be programmed to run all of Busicom's calculators as well as devices like traffic lights and elevators.

That first chip was able to execute 60,000 operations per second, as compared to today's chips which perform more than 112 MIPS (millions of instructions per second).

The microprocessor led to the development of the microcontroller, which adds to the memory of the microprocessor, and performs an almost limitless number of complex functions. Today, microcontrollers are everywhere: embedded in common items such as wristwatches, standard household appliances like microwave ovens and children's toys. They also are employed in missiles, space probes and commercial aircraft.

Some of the historic machines on display at the museum will include the Intel 4004 microprocessor, the Busicom calculator, the Micral, the Altair 8800 computer,the Apple I and the Xerox Alto, machines that changed the world.

The Apple I that will be on display at Comdex is a rarity, Bell said.

The first Apple consisted of a circuit board around which the component system was built. "When they came out with the Apple II, they said anybody can send in their Apple I board and get a deep discount on an Apple II," she recalled. "Then Apple crunched all of the Apple I's. There are only a few left, they're rare and have a lot of sentimental value in the industry."

The Computer Museum in Boston got its Apple I from Ann Bowers, a vice president of human resources at Apple who was married to Robert Noyce, the founder of Intel. She just happened to have one and it's the Apple I that will be on display in the museum during Comdex.

The exhibit will feature three vignettes: one from the '70s and two from the '80s representing various generations of the microprocessor.

The '70s exhibit shows the typical computer hacker's garage, recalling the early days of innovators like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak who founded the giant Apple Computer company in a garage. It also is reminiscent of earlier pioneers Bill Hewlett and David Packard who founded their company in a garage -- in 1939.

The scene is packed with relics from the early days of computing including Nolan Bushnell's first coin-operated video game, Computer Space, developed in 1971. Only 2,000 units of the cumbersome, complicated game were sold.

Bushnell founded Atari in 1971, introducing Pong, a simple ping-pong game that is said to have launched the video-arcade craze. Three years later, a drop in microchip prices allowed for introduction of a home version of the game, which was played on television sets.

Half of the '80s vignette features the Hong Kong Jockey Club, an early user of the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet program which ran on the Intel 8088-based IBM PC. It featured a floppy disk drive, a color or monochrome monitor, expansion slots and a full range of software. The Jockey Club used the spreadsheet program to track racecourse statistics, prepare budgets and maintain staffing information.

The other half shows Granada High School in Livermore, Calif., which used computer technology to turn a journalism class into a desktop publishing operation in 1985. Students produced their school newspaper, The Wall, using an Apple Macintosh computer and PageMaker software. To help pay for the equipment, they used the computer to design publications for county agencies.

No vignette or icon has been developed for the '90s, which is still being defined in terms of computing history, said French. One important feature of the '90s, though, is portability.

Portability actually began in 1980 when computer book publisher Adam Osborne built the first truly moveable computer. The 17-pound Osborne I offered two floppy disk drives and had a base price of $1,795. The Compaq Portable Computer came out in 1983 and was 100 percent IBM compatible. Despite its 28-pound weight and sewing-machine dimensions, it was popular with traveling computer users.

The portability movement reached its adulthood in 1991 when Apple introduced its Powerbook line, featuring a Motorola 68000 processor, offering a bright, sharp screen, built-in pointing device and long battery life.