Slightly OT, but I Think You'll Enjoy

[Les Bell]

Since it is the 35th anniversary of the 4004 microprocessor, Intel has released the schematics of that chip, as well as a simulator written in Java. Details are available at the unofficial 4004 web site: http://www.4004.com/.

Apparently the Intel Museum [http://www.intel.com/museum/] is also going to feature a giant reproduction of the Busicom 141-PF calculator, which was the product the chip was designed for.

Really fascinating stuff. . .

[Bram]

have a look into another museum.

[Paul Brogger]

When I started working at the Washington Library Network, the previous-generation terminal was a monstrously-heavy Omron (I think) with an integral 300-baud acoustic coupler. The thing had the expanded character set (including diacritics and special charactes used in Library Automation) and a 24 x 80 monochrome screen. Internally, it had a narrow backplane and maybe a couple dozen small (~ 4" x 5") circuit boards. I recognized the 4004 and 256-bit memory packages in there -- already obsolete during that 8080 / Z80 / 6502 etc. period.

Being the previous-generation terminal, we were encouraged to take them home so we could intervene in off-hours trouble calls and monitor all-night database reorganizations.

Ahhh, the good old days . . .