Editing Intel 8008 (section)

==History==
In order to address several issues with the [[Datapoint 3300]], including excessive heat radiation, [[Computer Terminal Corporation]] (CTC) designed the architecture of the 3300's planned successor with a CPU as part of the internal circuitry re-implemented on a single chip. Looking for a company able to produce their chip design, CTC co-founder Austin O. "Gus" Roche turned to Intel, then primarily a vendor of memory chips.<ref name="Wood">{{citation |author-first=Lamont |author-last=Wood |url=http://www.computerworld.com/article/2532590/computer-hardware/forgotten-pc-history--the-true-origins-of-the-personal-computer.html |title=Forgotten PC history: The true origins of the personal computer |journal=Computerworld |date=2008-04-08 |access-date=2014-12-02  |archive-date=2018-11-16  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116163842/https://www.computerworld.com/article/2532590/computer-hardware/forgotten-pc-history--the-true-origins-of-the-personal-computer.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Roche met with [[Bob Noyce]], who expressed concern with the concept; [[John Frassanito]] recalls that: {{quote|"Noyce said it was an intriguing idea, and that Intel could do it, but it would be a dumb move. He said that if you have a computer chip, you can only sell one chip per computer, while with memory, you can sell hundreds of chips per computer."<ref name="Wood"/>}} Another major concern was that Intel's existing customer base purchased their memory chips for use with their own processor designs; if Intel introduced their own processor, they might be seen as a competitor, and their customers might look elsewhere for memory. Nevertheless, Noyce agreed to a US$50,000 development contract in early 1970 ({{Inflation|US|50000|1970|fmt=eq|r=-3}}). [[Texas Instruments]] (TI) was also brought in as a second supplier.{{fact|date=April 2024}}

In December 1969, Intel engineer [[Stan Mazor]] and a representative of CTC met to discuss options for the logic chipset to power a new CTC business terminal. Mazor, who had been working with [[Ted Hoff]] on the development of the [[Intel 4004]], proposed that a one-chip programmable microprocessor might be less cumbersome and ultimately more cost effective than building a custom logic chipset. CTC agreed and development work began on the chip, which at the time was known as the 1201.<ref name="8008 DEV">{{cite web|url=https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/history/virtual-vault/articles/the-8008.html|title=The Intel 8008|work=[[Intel]]|access-date=December 15, 2024}}</ref>

TI was able to make samples of the 1201 based on Intel drawings, calling it the TMX 1795. These proved to be buggy and were rejected.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Shirriff |first1=Ken |title=The Texas Instruments TMX 1795: the (almost) first, forgotten microprocessor |url=https://www.righto.com/2015/05/the-texas-instruments-tmx-1795-first.html |website=righto.com |access-date=6 March 2025}}</ref> Intel's own versions were delayed. CTC decided to re-implement the new version of the terminal using [[Serial computer|serial]] discrete [[Transistor–transistor logic|TTL]] instead of waiting for a single-chip CPU. The new system was released as the [[Datapoint 2200]] in the spring of 1970, with their first sale to [[General Mills]] on 25 May 1970.<ref name="Wood"/> CTC paused development of the 1201 after the 2200 was released, as it was no longer needed. Later in early 1971, Seiko approached Intel, expressing an interest in using the 1201 in a scientific calculator, likely after seeing the success of the simpler 4004 used by Busicom in their business calculators.<ref name="8008 DEV"/> A small re-design followed, under the leadership of [[Federico Faggin]], the designer of the [[Intel 4004|4004]], now project leader of the 1201, expanding from a 16-pin to 18-pin design, and the new 1201 was delivered to CTC in late 1971.<ref name="Wood"/>

By that point, CTC had once again moved on, this time to the parallel-architecture [[Datapoint 2200 II]], which was faster than the 1201. CTC voted to end their involvement with the 1201, leaving the design's intellectual property to Intel instead of paying the $50,000 contract. Intel renamed it the 8008 and put it in their catalog in April 1972 priced at US$120 ({{Inflation|US|120|1972|fmt=eq}}). This renaming tried to ride off the success of the 4004 chip, by presenting the 8008 as simply a 4 to 8 port, but the 8008 is ''not'' based on the [[Intel 4004|4004]].<ref>{{cite interview |author=Ken Shirriff |quote=First, the 4004 and the 8008 are entirely different chips. Marketing makes them sound like it's just a 4-bit and 8-bit version, but they're totally different. |url=https://oxide.computer/podcasts/on-the-metal/ken-shirriff/ |time=19:52 |date=2021-01-26 |interviewer1=Bryan Cantrill |interviewer2=Jessie Frazelle |interviewer3=Steve Tuck |work=Oxide Computing Podcast |title=On the Metal: Ken Shirriff }}</ref> The 8008 went on to be a commercially successful design. This was followed by the popular [[Intel 8080]], and then the hugely successful [[Intel x86]] family.<ref name="Wood"/> 

One of the first teams to build a complete system around the 8008 was Bill Pentz's team at [[California State University, Sacramento]]. The ''Sac State 8008'' was possibly the first true microcomputer, with a disk operating system built with [[IBM Basic assembly language]] in PROM,{{Disputed inline|talkpage=Talk:Intel 8008|IBM Basic assembly language|date=November 2024}} all driving a color display, hard drive, keyboard, modem, audio/paper tape reader, and printer.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cnet.com/culture/inside-the-worlds-long-lost-first-microcomputer/ |title=Inside the world's long-lost first microcomputer |date=2010-01-08 |website=cnet.com |access-date=2024-10-09}}</ref> The project started in the spring of 1972, and with key help from [[Tektronix]], the system was fully functional a year later.

In the UK, a team at S. E. Laboratories Engineering (EMI) led by Tom Spink in 1972 built a microcomputer based on a pre-release sample of the 8008. Joe Hardman extended the chip with an external stack. This, among other things, gave it power-fail save and recovery. Joe also developed a direct screen printer. The operating system was written using a meta-assembler developed by L. Crawford and J. Parnell for a [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] [[PDP-11]].<ref>Brunel University, 1974. Master of Technology dissertation, L. R. Crawford.</ref> The operating system was burnt into a PROM. It was interrupt-driven, queued, and based on a fixed page size for programs and data. An operational prototype was prepared for management, who decided not to continue with the project.{{fact|date=April 2024}}

The 8008 was the CPU for the very first commercial non-calculator [[personal computer]]s (excluding the Datapoint 2200 itself): the US [[SCELBI]] kit and the pre-built French [[Micral N]] and Canadian [[MCM/70]]. It was also the controlling microprocessor for the first several models in Hewlett-Packard's [[HP 2640|2640]] family of computer terminals.{{fact|date=April 2024}}

{{anchor|INTERP}}In 1973, Intel offered an [[instruction set simulator]] for the 8008 named INTERP/8.<ref name="Intel_1973">{{cite book |title=MCS-8 Microcomputer Set - 8008 - 8 Bit Parallel Central Processor Unit - Users Manual |chapter=XI. Appendices III. MCS-8 Software Package - Simulator |date=1974 |orig-date=November 1973 |version=Revision 4, Second Printing |publisher=[[Intel Corporation]] |publication-place=Santa Clara, California, USA |id=MCS-056-0574/25K |pages=84–94 |url=https://en.wikichip.org/w/images/e/ec/MCS-8_User_Manual_%28Rev_4%29_%28Nov_1973%29.pdf |access-date=2023-11-25 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231125221321/https://en.wikichip.org/w/images/e/ec/MCS-8_User_Manual_%28Rev_4%29_%28Nov_1973%29.pdf |archive-date=2023-11-25}} (132 pages)</ref> It was written<!-- in 1972 or 1973, exact date not known yet --> in [[FORTRAN IV]] by [[Gary Kildall]] while he worked as a consultant for Intel.<ref name="Kildall_1974">{{cite magazine |title=High-level language simplifies microcomputer programming |author-last=Kildall |author-first=Gary Arlen |author-link=Gary Arlen Kildall |website=[[Electronics (magazine)|Electronics]] |publisher=[[McGraw-Hill Education]] |date=1974-06-27 |pages=103–109 [108] |url=https://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/kildall_highlevel_1974.pdf |access-date=2021-11-14 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114174610/https://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/kildall_highlevel_1974.pdf |archive-date=2021-11-14}}</ref><ref name="Intel_1975">{{cite web |title=8008 Simulator INTERP/8 |series=Microcomputer Software |publisher=[[Intel Corporation]] |publication-place=Santa Clara, California, USA |date=March 1975 |id=Product Code 98-118A. MCS-514-0375/27.5K |url=https://mark-ogden.uk/files/intel/publications/98-118A%208008%20Simulator%20Interp_8-Mar75.pdf |access-date=2023-11-25 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231125173745/https://mark-ogden.uk/files/intel/publications/98-118A%208008%20Simulator%20Interp_8-Mar75.pdf |archive-date=2023-11-25}} (2 pages)</ref>