Look at the chips that have changed the world.

I believe that if you have drawn a lot of circuits, if you have contacted a lot of chips, there should be some chips that you think are the most important in history and can affect the whole world.

There may be: 80C51, 430, 8086, STM32, TMS320CXX, 555, 74LS74.

To commemorate these great chips and tell the people and stories behind them, IEEE Spectrum   I made this "Chip Hall of Fame" . The class is a total of 27 chips in 7 categories that affect the entire computing world.

The first of the list comes mostly from IEEE Spectrum's 2009 topic "25 Microchips That Shook The World," written by Brian Santo, which now adds some of the important chips that have emerged since then. Of course, this list is certainly controversial. For example, readers may question why Intel's 8088 microprocessor was selected, not 4004 (the first microprocessor from Intel) or 8080 (the most famous microprocessor in Intel)? To be clarified, this list is the source of trust between the author and the author, and   IEEE Spectrum   The editors of several have come up after weeks of arguments. It doesn't just focus on chips that have achieved great commercial success or significant technological advances. They focus on microchips that have proven to be unique, fascinating, and amazing. Most importantly, this list collects chips that have profoundly affected the lives of many people – they are an important part of many world-changing electronic devices, symbolizing the development of technology.

category:

Audio Amplifiers (Amplifiers & Audio)

Interface (Interfacing)

Logic

Memory & Storage (Memory & Storage)

MEM & Sensors (MEMs & Sensors)

Processors

Wireless

Fairchild Semiconductor μA741 Operational Amplifier (1968)

Fairchild Semiconductor μA741 Op-Amp

The chip became the de facto standard for analog amplifier ICs. The chip is still in production and can be found everywhere in electronics.

Manufacturer: Fairchild Semiconductor

Category: Amplifier & Audio

Year: 1968

An op amp is like a sliced ​​bread in the analog design world. You can use them to clip anything and get satisfactory results. Designers use them to make audio or video preamps, voltage comparators, precision rectifiers, and many other important subsystems in everyday electronic systems.

In 1963, 26-year-old engineer Robert Widlar designed the first monolithic integrated operational amplifier circuit, the μA702, at Fairchild Semiconductor. It was priced at $300 at the time. Widlar then improved the design, designed the μA709, and achieved great commercial success. It is said that Widlar therefore asked for a raise, but was not satisfied, so he left Fairchild Semiconductor. National Semiconductor Corporation (now part of Texas Instruments) was able to quickly dig Widlar if it was a treasure. Widlar later helped National Semiconductor establish an analog IC design department. In 1967, Widlar developed a better operational amplifier for National Semiconductor, the LM101, and one version (LM101A-N) is still in production.

Although Fairchild’s leaders were overwhelmed by the sudden competition of Widlar, in the Fairchild’s R&D lab, the newly added David Fullagar examined the LM101 carefully and found that the design of the chip was very clever, but still There are some drawbacks. One of the biggest drawbacks is that some chips are too sensitive to noise at the input stage of the IC, the so-called front stage, due to changes in semiconductor quality.

Fullagar then started his own design. The solution to the front-end problem is very simple, and Fullagar adds a pair of extra transistors to the chip. Additional circuitry makes the amplification smoother.

Fullagar handed his design to the boss of Fairchild's R&D department, a man named Gordon Moore. Moore handed his design to the company's business department. This new chip was named μA741 and later became the standard for operational amplifiers. The IC, and the various pirated models created by Fairchild's competitors, have sold millions. At the time, the price of the first version of the μA702 was $300, and now about $300 can buy about 2,000 μA741 chips.

Intersil ICL8038 Waveform Generator (1983)

Intersil ICL8038 Waveform Generator

Intersil's ICL8038 waveform generator brings complex sound to consumer electronics

Manufacturer: Intersil (Interdor)

Category: Amplifiers & Audio

Year: About 1983

A good basic waveform - the voltage that changes over time - is the raw material for building more complex behaviors. Intersil's ICL8038 integrated circuit is designed to easily obtain accurate waveforms that produce periodic signals such as sine, square and sawtooth, with very few external components.

Initially, the ICL8038 was ridiculed for its limited performance and had a tendency to behave erratically. Indeed, this chip is a bit unreliable. But the symbiosis quickly learned how to use it reliably, and then the 8038 achieved great success, eventually selling millions and being used in countless applications – including “phreakers”. "blue boxes" used in the 1980s.

Intersil discontinued the 8083 in 2002, but enthusiasts are still collecting ICL8038 for home-made function generators and modular analog synthesizers.

Micro-Open Semiconductor MAS3507 MP3 Decoder (1997)

Micronas Semiconductor MAS3507 MP3 Decoder

This chip opens the digital music revolution

Manufacturer: Micronas Semiconductor

Category: Amplifiers & Audio

Year: 1997

Before the iPod appeared, it was the Diamond Rio PMP300. Launched in 1998, the PMP300 fired almost immediately, but the enthusiasm quickly diminished. However, one thing that matters with this player is that it supports the MAS3507 MP3 decoder chip, a RISC-based digital signal processor with an instruction set optimized for audio compression and decompression. Its developer is Micronas (now TDK-Micronas), which allows Rio to compress more than a dozen songs into its flash memory. It may be ridiculous for today's standards, but at the time it was already competitive enough compared to portable CD players. Rio and its follow-up products paved the way for the iPod, and now you can put thousands of songs in your pocket.

Micronas

As the Micronas design file shows, the MAS3507 is designed to do just one thing, that is, it can only decode MPEG Audio Layer III (MP3) data very well.

Texas Instruments TMC0281 Speech Synthesizer (1978)

Texas Instruments TMC0281 Speech Synthesizer

This is the world's first speech synthesis chip.

Manufacturer: Texas Instruments

Category: Amplifiers & Audio

Year: 1978

Without TMC0281, ET may never have the ability to "call home." Because TMC0281 is the world's first single-chip speech synthesizer, is the "heart" (or should be said "mouth") of Texas Instruments' Speak&Spell learning toy? In Steven Spielberg's 1982 "ET Alien" movie, alien ET hacked into the toy and set up an interstellar communication device. (In the movie, ET also used a hanger, a coffee pot and a circular saw.) Today, we are becoming more and more accustomed to talking with consumer electronics; TMC0281 is the first step in the ubiquitous world of synthetic speech.

Alien ET holding a Speak&Spell toy

TMC0281 was released in 1978, using a technique called linear predictive coding (LPC) to produce speech, which produces a combination of hum, hum and pop. This is a surprising solution to the "generating speech" thing that is considered "impossible in an integrated circuit." The variant model of the TMC0281 is used in Atari's arcade games and Chrysler's K-cars. In 2001, Texas Instruments sold its speech synthesis chip line to Sensory, which discontinued the chip at the end of 2007. However, you can buy a very good Speak&Spell toy for about $50 on eBay.

Tripath Technology's TA2020 Audio Amplifier (1998)

Tripath Technology TA2020 Audio Amplifier

This is a solid-state, high-power amplifier that brings a lot of volume to cheaper devices.

Manufacturer: Tripath Technology

Category: Amplifiers and Audio

Year: 1998

Some audiophiles insist that vacuum tube amplifiers produce the best sound, and that's always the case. Therefore, when there is some sound in the audio world, it is said that a sound that is completely dependent on the semiconductor amplifier is as round and vibrant as a vacuum tube amplifier, causing great repercussions.

This amplifier is a Class D amplifier designed by Tripath Technology, a Silicon Valley company. Class D amplifiers work by not directly amplifying the incoming analog audio signal, but instead converting the analog audio to a digital pulse train that can be used to turn the power transistor on or off. The resulting signal is converted to an analog signal with a higher amplitude.

Tripath's trick is to use a 50 megahertz sampling system to drive the amplifier. The company says the TA2020 performs better and costs far less than any similar solid-state amplifier. In order to display the chip at the trade show, they deliberately played the famous theme song of the movie "Titanic".

Like most Class D amplifiers, the TA2020 is very energy efficient; it does not require a heat sink and can be used in a compact package. Tripath's low-end, 15-watt model of the TA2020 is priced at $3 for built-in speakers and microphones. Sony, Sharp, Toshiba and other home theaters, high-end audio systems and televisions use other models - the most powerful with 1000W output.

Later, other large semiconductor companies caught up and created similar chips, and Tripath was gradually forgotten. Companies such as Sure Electronics and Audiophonics now offer audio amplifier kits and products based on the TA2020 and its sister chips.

Amati Communications' Overture ADSL Chipset (1994)

Amati Communications Overture ADSL Chip Set

This communication chip opens the era of broadband Internet access

Manufacturer: Amati Communications

Category: Interfacing

Year: 1994

Remember when ADL (Digital Subscriber Line) appeared, did you throw a poor 56.6k per second modem into the trash can? Well, a few years later, with the advent of a dedicated fiber-based broadband network, you threw the ADL modem into the trash. But for many consumers, DSL is the first attempt at high-speed Internet, especially as a distribution system for music and movies. This is a great transition technology: DSL can transform existing regular audio phone lines into high-speed digital connections as long as the user is not far from the switch.

The center of this broadband revolution is Amati Communications, a startup from Stanford University. In the 1990s, the company proposed a DSL modulation method called discrete multitone (DMT). The method basically makes a telephone line look like hundreds of subchannels and uses a reverse Robinson strategy to improve the transmission. John M. Cioffi, co-founder of Amati and now a professor of engineering at Stanford University, said: "The bit was taken from the poorest channel and then given the richest channel." DMT defeated its competitors. Including giants such as AT&T, becoming the global standard for DSL. In the mid-1990s, Amati's DSL chipset (a simulation, two numbers) sold a small amount, but by 2000, annual sales had reached millions. At the beginning of the 21st century, the annual sales volume exceeded 100 million. Texas Instruments acquired Amati in 1997.

Western Digital's WD1402A UART (1971)

Western Digital WD1402A UART

Manufacturer: Western Digital

Category: Interfacing

Year: 1971

Gordon Bell is known for launching the PDP series of small computers at the DEC in the 1960s. This ushered in the era of networking and interactive computers, which flourished with the advent of personal computers in the 1970s. Although small computers have now entered history textbooks, Bell has also invented some relatively less well-known but not unimportant technologies, and these technologies are still being used around the world: Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter ), referred to as UART.

The UART is used to allow two digital devices to transmit one bit at a time through the serial interface without interfering with the device's main processor and details.

Today, we can use more complex serial settings, such as the ubiquitous USB standard. But for a long time, the UART was a dominant way in applications such as connecting a modem to a PC. Even now, a simple UART still has its place, especially as the ultimate way to connect with many modern network devices.

The invention of the UART was due to Bell's own need to connect a teletype printer to a PDP-1, which required the conversion of parallel signals into serial signals. Bell then designed a circuit that uses about 50 separate components. This idea proved to be welcome. At the time, Western Digital was a small company that made computer chips, and it designed a single-chip version of the UART. Al Phillips, founder of Western Digital, still remembers the company's engineering vice president who showed him the scenes of Rubylith's design drawings. He said: "I looked at it for a while and found a broken circuit. The vice president is going crazy." Western Digital released the WD1402A around 1971, and other versions were released later.

IBM Deep Blue 2 Chess Chip (1997)

IBM Deep Blue 2 Chess Chip

Dark blue logic chip empowers AI for the first major victory of mankind

Manufacturer: IBM

Category: Logic

Year: 1997

In 1997, when IBM's chess computer "Deep Blue" defeated world champion Garry Kasparov, humans finally lost in front of the computer. Each chip in dark blue contains 1.5 million transistors, which are integrated into specialized blocks, such as a logical array of move-generators, as well as some RAM and ROM. These chips work together at a speed of 200 million moves per second. The dark blue planner Feng-hsiung Hsu, now the Advanced Research Institute of Microsoft Research Asia, recalls that these moves "apply a lot of psychological pressure on the opponent."

Since the victory of Deep Blue, artificial intelligence has beaten humans in more and more games that were originally dominated by human intelligence. For example, Google's AlphaGo defeated the world champions Li Shizhen and Ke Jie in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Signetics NE555 (1971)

Signetics NE555

Manufacturer: Signetics

Category: Logic

Year: 1971

It was in the summer of 1970. Chip designer Hans Camenzind was a consultant to Silicon Valley semiconductor company Signetics. At that time, the economy fell, he earned less than $15,000 a year, and his family had a wife and four children. He really needs to invent something that is good to sell.

He really did it. Moreover, his invention can be said to be one of the greatest chips in history. The 555 Timer is an easy-to-use integrated circuit chip that is commonly used in timers and oscillator circuits. Due to its ease of use, low price and good reliability, this chip is still widely used in the design of thousands of electronic circuits such as kitchen appliances, toys and spacecraft.

“It’s almost impossible to come out.” Camenzind recalled a few years ago when he was interviewed by IEEE Spectrum. Camenzind died in 2012.

When sprouting the 555 idea, Camenzind is designing a circuit called a phase-locked loop. As long as you make some changes, this circuit can become a simple timer: it can run for a specific period of time after it is triggered. It sounds simple, there was no such thing at the time.

Initially, the engineering department of Signetics opposed the idea. At the time, the company already had components that could be assembled into timers for sale. The fate of 555 almost ended like this. But Camenzind insisted on his idea. He went to Art Fury, the marketing manager of Signetics. Fortunately, Fury likes this idea.

Camenzind spent nearly a year testing prototypes of analog boards, drawing circuit components on paper and cutting red film overlays. Camenzind recalls: "It's all done by hand, no computer." The final design has 23 transistors, 16 resistors and 2 diodes.

The 555 timer was introduced to the market in 1971, causing a sensation. In 1975, Signetics was acquired by Philips Semiconductors (now NXP Semiconductors), which, according to the company, has sold billions of 555s. Today's engineers still use 555 to design some useful electronic modules, or some little things that are of little use, such as the "head ranger" headlights.

Xilinx XC2064 FPGA (1985)

Xilinx XC2064 FPGA

Manufacturer: Xilinx

Category: Logic

Year: 1985

As early as the early 1980s, chip designers have been trying to make full use of the efficacy of every transistor in the circuit. Later, Ross Freeman came up with a rather radical idea. He designed a chip with many transistors that make up a loose block of logic that can be reconfigured via software. As a result, sometimes some transistors are not used, but Freeman believes that Moore's Law will eventually make transistor costs low, and no one cares about transistor waste. He is right. He named the chip "Field Programmable Gate Array" (FPGA) and, in order to promote the chip, founded Xilinx as co-founder.

In 1985, when Xilinx's first product, the XC2064, was introduced, employees were given the task of manually drawing an example circuit using the XC2064 logic unit, just as their customers did. Bill Carter, former CTO of Xilinx, recalled that when he approached CEO Bernie Vonderschmitt, he saw that he "had encountered some difficulties in drawing." Carter is very happy to help the boss. He said: "We are standing there, using paper and colored pencils to help Bernie draw!"

Today, FPGAs produced and sold by Xilinx and other companies are used in a variety of things, and it is difficult to enumerate them here. FPGA applications are found in, for example, software-defined radios, neural networks, data center routers, and the like.

Mostek MK4096 4-Kilobit DRAM (1973)

Mostek MK4096 4-Kilobit DRAM

Manufacturer: Mostek

Category: Memory & Storage

Year: 1973

The computer uses random access memory (RAM) as its workspace when running programs. Today's RAM chips have two characteristics: static RAM and dynamic RAM, or SRAM and DRAM for short. As long as the computer is turned on, the SRAM keeps the content unchanged, but the DRAM must be constantly updated. The advantage of DRAM over SRAM is that each memory cell is simple, which means more data can be packed into a given space. Most computers today use DRAM as the main memory.

The first DRAM chip was introduced by Intel. But Mostek's 4KB DRAM chip brings a key innovation, a circuit technology called address multiplexing, invented by Mostek co-founder Bob Proebsting. Typically, chips use the same pins to access the rows and columns of memory. This is done by sending row and column addressing signals in sequence. Therefore, the chip does not require too many pins, and the manufacturing cost is reduced due to an increase in memory density. It only has a bit of compatibility issues. Mostek's 4096 uses 16 pins, while Texas Instruments, Intel and Motorola have 22 pins.

Mostek will put the future on this chip. Executives began to advertise to customers, partners, the news media and even their own employees. Fred K Beckhusen, who was just hired at the time, was scheduled to test 4096. Beckhusen recalls that one day Proebsting and CEO LJ Sevin came to his night shift at 2 pm for a seminar. Beckhusen said: "They boldly predicted that in just six months, no one would care about 22-pin DRAM." They are right. 4096 and its successors have become mainstream DRAM, and address multiplexing has become the standard way to handle larger memory.

Toshiba NAND Flash (1989)

Toshiba NAND Flash Memory

Manufacturer: Toshiba

Category: Memory & Storage

Year: 1989

When Toshiba's factory manager, Fujio Masuoka, decided to redevelop semiconductor memory, the legend of flash memory was kicked off. But we will talk about flash memory later. First, let us know a little history.

Before flash appeared, the only way to store large amounts of data was to use tape, floppy or hard drives. Many companies are struggling to design solid-state alternatives, but options available at the time, such as EPROM (erasable programmable read-only memory, which requires ultraviolet light to erase data) and EEPROM (extra E represents "electricity", Large amounts of data cannot be stored at low cost without the need for UV erasure.

After entering Toshiba, Sakaoka hired four engineers to work together on a semi-secret project in 1980 to develop a memory chip that can store large amounts of data at a low cost. Their strategy is simple. "We know that as long as the size of the transistor shrinks, the cost of the chip will continue to drop." Sakaoka said that he is now the chief technology officer of Unisantis Electronics.

The team at Sakaoka designed a variant of EEPROM, which is characterized by a memory cell containing only a single transistor. At the time, the traditional EEPROM required two transistors per memory cell. This is a seemingly minor change, but it greatly reduces the cost of the chip.

In order to find an attractive name, they are named "flash" according to the chip's ultra-fast erase function. You might think that Toshiba will soon put the invention into production and watch it bring in wealth. wrong. You don't know enough about how this huge company uses its internal innovations. The actual situation is that the owner of Suigang said to him, well, forget about this invention.

Of course, how can Sugaoka forget his invention. In 1984, Sakaoka presented his flash memory design drawings at the IEEE International Electronic Equipment Conference in San Francisco. This prompted Intel to begin developing flash memory based on the "NOR" logic gate type. In 1988, Intel released a 256KB chip for use in automobiles, computers, and other mass-market devices, bringing Intel a decent new record.

In the end, this prompted Toshiba to put the invention of 舛冈 into production.舛 的's flash memory chip is based on NAND technology and can provide higher storage density, but it has proven to be more complicated in manufacturing process. In 1989, Toshiba's first NADA flash memory was finally put on the market and achieved success. And as Wugang predicted, prices are falling.

In the late 1990s, digital photography began to use flash memory, which led to the explosion of flash memory. Toshiba became one of the biggest players in the multi-billion dollar market. At the same time, however, the relationship between Sakaoka and other Toshiba executives deteriorated and eventually left Toshiba. (Later, he filed a lawsuit against Toshiba for intellectual property disputes and received compensation of 87 million yen.)

Today, NAND flash has become a key part of small devices such as cell phones, cameras, music players, and even space probes, and has begun to replace hard drives as the storage medium of choice for notebooks and desktops.

KODAK KAF-1300 Image Sensor (1986)

Kodak KAF-1300 Image Sensor

Manufacturer: Kodak

Category: MEMs and Sensors

Year: 1986

Today's image sensors are very small and inexpensive, and almost no phones have built-in cameras. This may be hard to imagine when Kodak released the Kodak DCS 100 digital camera in 1991. The cost of the DCS 100 is as high as $25,000, and the external data storage is 5 kilograms, and the user has to carry it with him. The camera's electronics are housed in the Nikon F3's body and contain an impressive piece of hardware: a thumb-sized chip that captures images at 1.3 megapixel resolution, enough to rinse in 5 x 7 inches .

The chip's chief designer, Eric Stevens, said: "At the time, 1 million pixels were already fantastic." This chip is a true two-phase charge-coupled device, the basis of the future CCD sensor, and revolutionized digital photography. . By the way, what is the first photo taken with KAF-1300? “Hey,” Stevens said. “We point the sensor at the wall of the lab.”

Texas Instruments Digital Micromirror Device (1987)

Texas Instruments Digital Micromirror Device

Manufacturer: Texas Instruments

Category: MEMS and Sensors

Year: 1987

On June 18, 1999, Larry Hornbeck dated his wife, Laura. They watched the movie "Star Wars I: The Phantom Crisis" at a movie theater in Burbank, California. Hornbeck is not a fan of the Jedi. They went there because the cinema had a real projector. At the heart of this projector is the digital micromirror device (DMD) chip developed by Hornbeck at Texas Instruments. DMD uses tens of thousands of hinged micromirrors to direct light through the projection lens of the projector. A line of words is displayed on the movie screen: "The first digital film show." Nowadays, film projectors use this digital yellow processing technology (or DLP), and rear projection TVs, projectors, mobile phone pico projectors, etc. also use DLP chips. In recognition of his invention, Hornbeck was awarded the Academy Award in 2015.

Aikang computer ARM1 processor (1985)

Acorn Computers ARM1 Processor

Manufacturer: Acorn Computers

Category: Processors

Year: 1985

Are you reading this article on your smartphone? Then you are now using the direct descendants of this processor.

In the early 1980s, Acorn Computers was a small company with great products. Headquartered in Cambridge, England, the company has sold more than 1.5 million 8-bit BBC Micro desktop computers through the BBC's National Computer Literacy Project. It is time for it to design a new computer. Aikang engineers were dissatisfied with the processors available on the market and decided to design their own 32-bit microprocessors.

They named the microprocessor Acorn RISC Machine, or ARM for short. RISC is short for "reduced-instruction-set computer", a method of designing processors that can handle complex machine code more efficiently. Engineers know that this is not easy to achieve. In fact, they expect half of the probability to encounter unsolvable obstacles, which eventually leads to the abolition of the entire project. Steve Furber, a professor of computer engineering at the University of Manchester, said, “There are too few people in this team, and every design decision has to choose a simplified solution, otherwise we will never be able to complete it.” In the end, simplicity is a great success. ARM is small, low power, and easy to program. Sophie Wilson of the design instruction set still remembers when they first tested the chip, "We made the 'PRINT PI' command at the prompt, which gave the correct answer," she said. "We opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate."

In 1990, Acorn stripped off its ARM division, and the ARM architecture continued to be the mainstream 32-bit processor for embedded applications. More than 10 billion ARM cores have been used in a variety of small devices, including Apple's most successful iPhone and the most failed Newton handheld. In fact, ARM chips are now available in over 95% of smartphones worldwide.

Atmel ATmega8 (2002)

ATmega8

Manufacturer: Atmel

Category: Processors

Year: 2002

Atmel's ATmega8 is one of the fruits of the modern chip maker movement. It is the heart of the first generation of Arduino development boards and is widely adopted by various types of electronic products. These inexpensive, powerful and easy-to-use boards have entered countless projects.

The ATmega8 comes from the AVR microcontroller family and was originally developed in the early 1990s by two students from Norwegian Polytechnic University, Alf-Egil Bogen and Vegard Wollan. Unlike conventional processors, AVR microcontrollers have their own onboard program memory and RAM instead of relying on external chips to store these resources: Bogen and Wollan are still very common during college, but at the time they Not satisfied with the microcontroller on the market. They decided to design a RISC-based processor (with limited machine code instructions to increase processing efficiency), especially to be designed to be easy to program and relatively powerful.

AVR microcontrollers are significantly different from the computers that most people use every day. Ordinary computers typically use the von Neumann architecture, where programs are loaded into RAM and executed on RAM. AVR uses the "Harvard Architecture" where program memory and working RAM are separate. In prototypes designed by Bogen and Wollan, the program is stored in ROM and cannot be reprogrammed once written. However, they found a solution in Atmel's AVR design. Flash memory that is easy to program (and reprogrammable) was added to the processor core, and the first commercial AVR chip AT90S8515 was released in 1996.

However, ATmega8 and its sister chip ATmega328P are the chips of Bogen and Wollan's dreams. They are easy to use, high performance, and have good development tools to achieve the best performance.

Computer Cowboys Sh-Boom Processor (1988)

Sh-Boom Processor

You may never have heard of this chip, but the high-speed architecture of this processor reappears in every modern computer.

Manufacturer: Computer Cowboys

Category: Processors

Year: 1988

Two chip designers approached a bar. They are Russell H. Fish III and Chuck H. Moore (the inventor of the Forth language), and the bar is called Sh-Boom. This is a real thing, not the beginning of a joke. In fact, this technical legend is full of discord and lawsuits.

It all began in 1988, when Fish and Moore created a weird processor called Sh-Boom. This chip is very streamlined and runs faster than the clock that drives the rest of the computer. So the two designers found a way to let the processor run its own ultra-fast internal clock while keeping up with the rest of the computer. Sh-Boom has never been commercially successful, and after obtaining the patent, Moore and Fish are scattered.

Intel 8088 Microprocessor (1979)

Intel 8088 Microprocessor

Manufacturer: Intel (Intel)

Category: Processor

Year: 1979

Is there any chip that is driving Intel into the Fortune 500? Intel said: 8088. This is IBM's 16-bit CPU for its original PC family, which later dominated the desktop market.

Quite a bit strange, this chip, called the x86 architecture, doesn't have the word "86" on its name. The 8088 is actually a slightly modified microprocessor based on the 8086. The 8086 is Intel's first 16-bit CPU. As Intel engineer and 8086 designer Stephen Morse once said, the 8088 is a "simplified version of the 8086." This is because the main innovation of the 8088 is not technically an improvement: the 8088 has 16-bit internal registers and an 8-bit external data bus.

Until the design of the 8086 was completed, Intel kept the 8088 project confidential. Peter Stoll, chief engineer of the 8086 project, said: "Management does not want the 8086 to delay even one day, or even tell us that they already have the idea of ​​a variant of 8088."

After the first practical 8086 came out, Intel sent the 8086 artwork and documentation to the design department in Haifa, Israel. Two engineers, Rafi Retter and Dany Star, changed the chip to an 8-bit bus.

This change proved to be one of Intel's most wise decisions. The 2,000-transistor 8088 CPU requires less, less expensive support chips than the 8086, and is "fully compatible with 8-bit hardware, while also providing faster processing and smoothing for transition to 16-bit processors", Intel's Robert Noyce and Ted Hoff wrote in an article in the IEEE micro magazine.

The first PC using the 8088 was the IBM Model 5150, a monochrome machine that cost $3,000. Now almost all PCs in the world have CPUs that say their ancestors are 8088.

Microchip Technology PIC 16C84 Microcontroller (1993)

Microchip Technology PIC 16C84 Microcontroller

Manufacturer: Microchip Technology

Category: Processor

Year: 1993

In the early 1990s, 8-bit microcontrollers were still the world of Motorola. Subsequently, Microchip Technology emerged, an unobtrusive competitor. Microchip developed the PIC 16C84, which uses an 8-bit microcontroller and adds a memory called EEPROM for electrically erasable programmable read-only memory. The EEPROM does not require UV light erasure, as does its predecessor EPROM. Such read-only memory is typically used to store program code or a small amount of data. The chip's chief designer, now Microchip's director Rod Drake, said eliminating the need for UV lights means "users can change code on the fly". Even better, the cost of the entire chip is less than $5, or a quarter of the cost of other products at the time. The 16C84 is used for smart cards, remote controls and wireless car keys. This is the beginning of a series of microcontrollers, and Microchip has become an electronic superstar that has been passed down by Fortune 500 companies and fans. 16C84已经退休,PIC系列仍在生产中,销量已达数十亿,用于工业控制器,无人驾驶飞行器,数字妊娠测试,芯片控制烟花,LED珠宝和称为Turd警报的化粪池监视器。

Microchip专利的草案显示了PIC控制器与其他计算机的不同之处。 在大多数计算机中,例如您的PC,程序和工作数据都存储在同一个内存中- 一种被称为“冯·诺依曼架构”的布局。但PIC控制器将程序和工作数据存储器分开保存- 这种安排被称为“哈佛架构“。这样可以将程序存储在便宜的只读存储器中。

MOS Technology 6502微处理器(1975)

MOS Technology 6502 Microprocessor

来自英雄时代的8位CPU,这款处理器驱动着Apple II,Commodore 64,BBC Micro等。

制造商: MOS Technology

类别: 处理器

年代: 1975

当一个胖脸极客将一个特别的芯片加到一个特别的计算机电路板并启动它时,时代改变了。这个极客是Steve Wozniak,计算机是苹果,芯片是由MOS Technology开发的8位微处理器6502。该芯片及其变体成为像Apple II,Commodore PET,Commodore 64 和BBC Micro 这样的可怕计算机的主要大脑,更不用说像任天堂娱乐系统和Atari 2600 这样的游戏系统(也称为Atari VCS)。 6502不仅仅比竞争对手速度更快,而且还比较便宜,售价为25美元,而英特尔的8080和摩托罗拉的6800都接近200美元。

用Peddle 创造6502的Bill Mensch说,取得成本下降的突破在于一个最小化的指令集,加上制作流程“比竞争对手高10倍”,6502几乎单枪匹马带动了处理器的价格下降,这推动了个人计算机鹅革命。该芯片的修订版本仍在生产中,一些制造商仍然在使用它——在商业嵌入式系统以及许多爱好者当中。

由于价格低廉,8位6502 在1975年发布的时候,对市场造成了巨大震动。 照片:Dirk Oppelt

摩托罗拉MC68000微处理器(1979)

Motorola MC68000 Microprocessor

该处理器驱动了最早的苹果Macintosh,以及可爱的Amiga 计算机。

制造商: Motorola

类别: 处理器

年代: 1979

16位的微处理器的派对上,摩托罗拉姗姗来迟,所以它决定高调亮相。混合16位/ 32位的MC68000封装在68,000个晶体管中,是英特尔8086的两倍以上。它内部是一个32位处理器,但32位地址和/或数据总线本可能使其成本大涨,所以68000使用了24位地址和16位数据线。 68000似乎是使用铅笔和纸张设计的最后一个主要处理器。设计了68000逻辑的Nick Tredennick说:“我将缩减的流程图副本、执行单元的资料、解码器和控制逻辑分发给了其他项目成员。”这些副本很小,难以阅读,他的同事们最终找到了一种方式显示清楚。 “有一天我来到我的办公室,发现我桌子上放着信用卡大小的流程图副本。”Tredennick回忆说。 68000 用于所有早期的Macintosh电脑,以及Amiga和Atari ST。大量销量也来自激光打印机、街机游戏和工业控制器的嵌入式应用。但是,68000也经历了历史上最大的错失良机,就如同当时Pete最终失去了他作为甲壳虫乐队鼓手的地位。 IBM本想在其PC系列中使用68000,但后来还是用了英特尔的8088,因为当时68000还比较少。正如一位观察家后来所说,如果当时用了摩托罗拉的68000,Windows-Intel形成的Wintel 可能就会是Winola 了。

金盖下面是一个32位处理器,但是连接它和外部世界的封装内,只有16位数据引脚。 照片:Arnold Reinhold

Sun Microsystems SPARC处理器(1987)

Sun Microsystems SPARC处理器

使用未经证实的新架构,该处理器宣告了Sun Microsystems的登场

制造商: Sun Microsystems

类别: 处理器

年代: 1987

很久以前(20世纪80年代初),微处理器架构师们试图增加CPU指令的复杂性,作为在每个计算周期中完成更多任务的一种方式。 但是,加州大学伯克利分校的一个小组做出了相反的呼吁:简化指令集。由David Patterson 率领的伯克利团队称之为降低指令集计算的RISC 方法。

作为一项学术研究,RISC 听起来很棒。 但是它是否可销售? Sun Microsystems(现在是Oracle 的一部分)赌了一把。 1984年,一小队Sun 工程师开始研发一款称为SPARC(可扩展处理器架构)的32位RISC处理器,想在Sun的新系列工作站中使用该芯片。 有一天,Sun的首席执行官Scott McNealy出现在SPARC开发实验室。 SPARC项目顾问Patterson回忆说,“McNealy表示,SPARC将把Sun从一家每年5亿美元的公司变为每年10亿美元的公司。”

如果没有足够的压力,Sun 以外的许多人怀疑公司可能会下马这一项目。 更糟糕的是,Sun的营销团队面临一个可怕的实现:SPARC 反着拼是... CRAPS! 团队成员不得不发誓,他们不会向任何人说出这个词,甚至在Sun里面,免得这个秘密让对手MIPS Technologies 知道,他们也探索RISC的概念。

首席SPARC架构师——现任IBM研究员——Robert Garner说:“极简主义SPARC的第一个版本包括一个”20,000门阵列处理器,甚至没有整数乘法/除法“指令。 然而,每秒1000万条指令,它的运行速度是当时复杂指令集计算机(CISC)处理器的三倍。

Sun将在未来几年使用SPARC为工作站和服务器提供支持。 1987年推出的第一个基于SPARC的产品是Sun-4系列工作站,它迅速占据市场份额,并推动了公司收入超过十亿美元的标准- 正如McNealy所预言的那样。

1988年的SPARC团队,首个基于SPARC的产品推出后,Sun Microsystems成为一个硅谷的大玩家之一。 照片:Robert B. Garner

德州仪器TMS32010数字信号处理器(1983)

德州仪器TMS32010数字信号处理器

该芯片宣告了数字信号处理器的登场

制造商: 德州仪器

类别: 处理器

年代: 1983

德克萨斯州给了我们许多伟大的东西,包括10加仑的帽子,炸鸡排,胡椒博士,还有比较低调的TMS32010数字信号处理器(DSP)芯片。复杂的模拟信号在被转换为原始数字流后通常用DSP 处理。通用CPU 搞不定这样的流,但DSP可以使用专门的算法和硬件将流处理成整个系统可以处理的东西。

由德州仪器公司创建,TMS32010并不是第一个DSP(第一个是AT&T / Western Electric的DSP1,1980年推出的),但肯定是最快的。它可以在200纳秒内进行乘法运算。 此外,它可以执行片上ROM和片外RAM的指令。 DSP设计团队和IEEE研究员的成员Wanda Gass说:“这使TMS32010的程序开发灵活,就像微控制器和微处理器一样。每片500美元,第一年芯片售出约1000台。销售额最终取得了增长。DSP成为调制解调器、医疗设备和军事系统的一部分。哦,另一个应用是——世界的奇迹Julie 娃娃,一种可以唱歌和谈话的令人毛骨悚然的娃娃。该芯片是大型DSP系列中的第一个,并且仍然在为德州仪器赚钱。

1987年, Julie娃娃。Photo: Janet M. Baker

德州仪器TMS9900(1976)

德州仪器TMS9900

一个雄心勃勃的失败,这款处理器驱动了第一台16位家用计算机。

制造商: 德州仪器

类别: 处理器

年代: 1976

很少有一个芯片接近真正的伟大,多是功败垂成。德州仪器公司的TMS 9900有很多的应用。20世纪70年代初,TI 已经意识到,由英特尔4004在1971年开端的微处理器新兴市场- 将迎来对远强于8 位处理器的芯片的需求。 该公司最终掌握了金属氧化物半导体技术,这取代了早期的双极技术,用于制造集成电路晶体管。 TI本就具有雄厚的研发资源和营销力量。

但是,由此产生的16位处理器将会失去作为IBM个人计算机处理器的大好机会。 “在1976年出现TMS 9900时,有几个问题,”TI分部经理Walden C. Rhines解释了该芯片的不走运,“其中最大的两个问题:“9900架构与TI小型机系列相同,只有16位的地址空间,与当时的8位微处理器相同;另一个是战略问题,电子设备行业的竞争对手不愿意认可已经拥有大型计算机和消费产品业务的公司架构。 ”

TMS900成为TI-99/4和TI-99 / 4A 微型计算机的核心,在家用计算机中拥有第一个16位CPU。 CPU的速度也加快了,时钟速度3MHz,比像Commodore 64这样的竞争对手的1到2 MHz的时钟速度快得多。与Commodore的价格战导致TI-99 / 4A获得了显著的市场份额, 但这是以牺牲利润为代价的。 它本可存活下来,如果不是TMS9900的系统设计问题萦绕不去,且TI对第三方软件开发人员的态度能客气一点的话。

后来又出现了一些后续芯片,如TMS995——它被认为是嵌入式控制器,但这一系列从没能从最初的失败中恢复过来:当进入PC市场时,TI最终使用的是英特尔的处理器。

TMS9900 处理器具有远见卓识的目的,但是其复制小型计算机体系结构的尝试是失败的。 照片:Konstantin Lanzet

Transmeta Corp. Crusoe处理器(2000)

Transmeta Corp. Crusoe处理器

这个芯片预示了移动时代的到来,能耗,而非处理能力,成为了最重要的规格参数。

制造商: Transmeta Corp.

类别: 处理器

年代: 2000

功率越大,散热器越大,电池寿命越短,耗电越疯狂。因此,Transmeta的目标是设计一款羞辱英特尔和AMD的低功耗处理器。该计划是:软件可以将x86指令转换成Crusoe自己的机器代码,其更高的并行度将节省时间和力量。它被称为切片硅片以来最伟大的事情。 Transmeta 的共同创始人,现在Esperanto Technologies 的David Ditzel表示,Crusoe及其继任者Efficeon证明了动态二进制翻译在商业上是可行的。不幸的是,他补充说,这些芯片在低功耗计算机市场起飞几年前就起飞了,最终只出现在了几个产品中。最后,虽然Transmeta没有实现其商业承诺,但它确实指向了处理器的功耗与其处理性能一样重要的世界,而一些Transmeta的技术也已经进入到英特尔、AMD和Nvidia芯片中。

IEEE Spectrum的这张封面照片包括Transmeta 最著名的雇员之一Linus Torvalds,Linux的创始人[右三]。

Zilog Z80 微处理器(1976)

Zilog Z80 Microprocessor

来自8位时代的另一个传奇,这款处理器驱动了第一台便携式计算机以及受欢迎的“Trash-80”

制造商:Zilog

类别: 处理器

年代: 1976

Federico Faggin 知道销售微处理器需要多少和人手。 而在英特尔,他曾为4004和8080 这两个开创性设计作出了贡献。 所以当Faggin与前英特尔同事Ralph Ungermann建立Zilog时,他们决定从一个更简单的方面开始:一个单片微控制器。

但是工程师很快意识到,微控制器市场已经有很多很好的芯片了。 即使他们比别人更好,他们也只不过能够追求薄利多销。 Zilog必须瞄准更高的食物链,于是Z80微处理器项目诞生了。

目标是超过8080,同时提供与8080软件的完全兼容性,吸引客户远离英特尔。 几个月之前, Faggin、Ungermann和另外一名前英特尔工程师Masatoshi Shima在80多个星期的时间里守在桌子边,画着Z80的电路。 Faggin很快就知道,当涉及到微芯片时,越小越美丽,就是对眼睛不太好。

他说:“最后我得戴眼镜,我变得近视了。”

该团队的研发从1975年延续到1976年。那年3月,他们终于有了一个原型芯片,Z80 是MOS Technology's 6502的当代翻版,它不仅设计优雅,而且还便宜(约25美元)。

Z80最终进入了成千上万的产品,包括Osborne I(第一个便携式或“可移动”)计算机,KayPro II,Radio Shack TRS-80和MSX家用电脑,以及打印机,传真机, 复印机,调制解调器和卫星。 Zilog仍然在某些嵌入式系统中使用着Z80。

早期的陶瓷封装中的Z80芯片。 批量生产版使用塑料包装。图文:CPU-World

意法半导体STA2056 GPS 接收器(2004)

STA2056 GPS Receiver

廉价又小巧,这个GPS 接收器助推了移动设备中的集成导航技术

制造商: STMicroelectronics

类别: 处理器

年代: 2004

在芯片制造领域,一个小高潮是单芯片杀死双芯片单芯片的运动。早在2004年,意法半导体在GPS接收器里这么做了。之前,是一个芯片容纳GPS无线电前端,拾取从轨道GPS卫星发送的导航信号,另一个芯片包含一个微处理器、一些存储器和一个信号器,GPS通过比较来自多个卫星的信号来确定每个接收机的位置。随着STA2056 的出现,这两个芯片整合在了一起。虽然手持式GPS系统已经上市,但STA2056设定了尺寸和功耗的新标准,而8美元的价格推动了GPS设备的成本下降,并为他们开辟了一个大众市场。菲亚特在几个阿尔法罗密欧车型中使用了该芯片,而GPS供应商Becker将其放在了手机中。这也推动GPS的概念成为了可以集成到设备中的东西,而不仅仅是用作独立的产品或模块。今天几乎每一个手机- 还有不少手表- 都有一个GPS芯片,通常与其他技术(如Wi-Fi信标映射)一起使用,即使在卫星不在视野中也能够导航。而且,当然,将两个芯片合二为一的招数仍然是各地芯片制造商的最爱。

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