Monday, December 16th 2024
Intel Celebrates 50 Years of the 8080 Processor
The Intel 8080. It didn't revolutionize microprocessors - it created the microprocessor market. "The 4004 and 8008 suggested it, but the 8080 made it real," said Federico Faggin, Intel's lead designer for the 8080 and its predecessor processors, the 4004 and 8008. Prior to the 8080's launch in 1974, Intel mostly made chips designed for specific types of customers and their needs. And though the 4004 and 8008 were later used in applications beyond their original use cases, general use was not the original design goal. The 4004, for example, was originally designed for Busicom's 141-PF printing calculator, and the 8008 for Computer Terminal Corporation's Datapoint 2200 programmable terminal.
Faggin designed the 8080 in direct response to feedback from 8008 customers who reported the earlier chip's design restricted the scale and complexity of the software they wanted to create. The resulting new 8-bit chip was more efficient, more powerful and more flexible - capable of 290,000 operations per second (10 times that of the 8008). And with a 40-pin configuration, it made connecting to other components easier than the 8008's 18-pin design. The 8080 also integrated the functions of the supporting chips that the 4004 and 8008 needed, making it a true single-chip microprocessor.
It's not too much to say that the 8080 opened the world to microprocessors, delivering computing to not just all companies, but all people.
Busicom invested $60,000 for Intel to develop the 4004 for proprietary use, which reflects the chip-designing norms of the time. That changed with the 8080 and its democratic customizability.
Companies now had a shiny new option: spend $360 and program the processor to do whatever was needed. The 8080 proved that a powerful, general-purpose processor could have unlimited applications and countless customers, fueling the mass-adoption of personal computers, creating new categories of silicon-powered devices, and spurring programming as a relevant and in-demand skill.
The 8080 represented a world of possibilities in a tiny package, putting power in the hands of programmers to push the boundaries of technology. And, its genetics are still in chips all over the world, as it directly inspired the x86 architecture that became the world's most widely used computing architecture.
Today, Intel chips are nestled inside computers, cars, cell towers, digital signs, data centers and a myriad connected devices. In honor of the Intel 8080's 50th anniversary, the Intel Museum in Santa Clara, Calif., has a full exhibit, including functional 8080 devices.
Below, read a handful of the earliest implementations of the 8080 and their modern counterparts, also running on Intel silicon.
Supermarket Sweep
Hugin Model 150 cash registers, made by Swedish company Hugin, were some of the earliest electronic cash registers to use the 8080. Though they were a vast improvement from the mechanical cash registers of the past, early electronic cash registers had limited functionality and ran on proprietary software. With the 8080, cash registers gained computer-like functionality and only grew more sophisticated with time, gaining the ability to handle digital displays, print receipts and read credit cards.
Since then, point-of-sale systems have come a long way, and Intel chips, like the Intel Core i3, are at the heart of many self-checkout and POS machines today. Remember that the next time you're bip-bip-bipping your 15-items-or-fewer.
Let's Get Personal (Computers)
The 8080 hummed away at the heart of one of the first personal computers, the MITS Altair 8800. This landmark machine was priced at $439, which made it infinitely more accessible than the $30,000 commercial computers that were shared among whole teams of people. The Altair 8800 didn't have a keyboard or monitor, and users had to solder their own connections.
Fifty years later, PCs look very different, and they're a little faster, too. When it launched, the 8080 boasted a max clock speed of 2 MHz. This year's freshly launched Intel Core Ultra Series 2 desktop processors (code-named Arrow Lake) offer a max clock speed of 5.7 GHz, or 5,700 MHz.
Game On
Gun Fight, from Midway Games, was the first commercially-available arcade game to incorporate a microprocessor as opposed to discrete logic. The game features two Old West cowboys who face off in a duel and was popular for Midway (thousands of the arcade machines sold in 1975 and 1976). In 1978, the 8080 would power another Midway Games machine: Space Invaders.
Today, gamers have far more options. From PC gaming and consoles to virtual reality and full-featured smartphone franchises, today's experiences go beyond lining up at the local arcade. Mobile gaming by itself is a $90 billion industry. Devices like the MSI Claw continue to push the boundaries of what's possible for gamers on the go. It packs an Intel Core Ultra processor with built-in Intel Arc graphics into a handheld device capable of running AAA games.
Faggin designed the 8080 in direct response to feedback from 8008 customers who reported the earlier chip's design restricted the scale and complexity of the software they wanted to create. The resulting new 8-bit chip was more efficient, more powerful and more flexible - capable of 290,000 operations per second (10 times that of the 8008). And with a 40-pin configuration, it made connecting to other components easier than the 8008's 18-pin design. The 8080 also integrated the functions of the supporting chips that the 4004 and 8008 needed, making it a true single-chip microprocessor.
Busicom invested $60,000 for Intel to develop the 4004 for proprietary use, which reflects the chip-designing norms of the time. That changed with the 8080 and its democratic customizability.
Companies now had a shiny new option: spend $360 and program the processor to do whatever was needed. The 8080 proved that a powerful, general-purpose processor could have unlimited applications and countless customers, fueling the mass-adoption of personal computers, creating new categories of silicon-powered devices, and spurring programming as a relevant and in-demand skill.
The 8080 represented a world of possibilities in a tiny package, putting power in the hands of programmers to push the boundaries of technology. And, its genetics are still in chips all over the world, as it directly inspired the x86 architecture that became the world's most widely used computing architecture.
Today, Intel chips are nestled inside computers, cars, cell towers, digital signs, data centers and a myriad connected devices. In honor of the Intel 8080's 50th anniversary, the Intel Museum in Santa Clara, Calif., has a full exhibit, including functional 8080 devices.
Below, read a handful of the earliest implementations of the 8080 and their modern counterparts, also running on Intel silicon.
Supermarket Sweep
Hugin Model 150 cash registers, made by Swedish company Hugin, were some of the earliest electronic cash registers to use the 8080. Though they were a vast improvement from the mechanical cash registers of the past, early electronic cash registers had limited functionality and ran on proprietary software. With the 8080, cash registers gained computer-like functionality and only grew more sophisticated with time, gaining the ability to handle digital displays, print receipts and read credit cards.
Since then, point-of-sale systems have come a long way, and Intel chips, like the Intel Core i3, are at the heart of many self-checkout and POS machines today. Remember that the next time you're bip-bip-bipping your 15-items-or-fewer.
Let's Get Personal (Computers)
The 8080 hummed away at the heart of one of the first personal computers, the MITS Altair 8800. This landmark machine was priced at $439, which made it infinitely more accessible than the $30,000 commercial computers that were shared among whole teams of people. The Altair 8800 didn't have a keyboard or monitor, and users had to solder their own connections.
Fifty years later, PCs look very different, and they're a little faster, too. When it launched, the 8080 boasted a max clock speed of 2 MHz. This year's freshly launched Intel Core Ultra Series 2 desktop processors (code-named Arrow Lake) offer a max clock speed of 5.7 GHz, or 5,700 MHz.
Game On
Gun Fight, from Midway Games, was the first commercially-available arcade game to incorporate a microprocessor as opposed to discrete logic. The game features two Old West cowboys who face off in a duel and was popular for Midway (thousands of the arcade machines sold in 1975 and 1976). In 1978, the 8080 would power another Midway Games machine: Space Invaders.
Today, gamers have far more options. From PC gaming and consoles to virtual reality and full-featured smartphone franchises, today's experiences go beyond lining up at the local arcade. Mobile gaming by itself is a $90 billion industry. Devices like the MSI Claw continue to push the boundaries of what's possible for gamers on the go. It packs an Intel Core Ultra processor with built-in Intel Arc graphics into a handheld device capable of running AAA games.
21 Comments on Intel Celebrates 50 Years of the 8080 Processor
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I for one remember when they pumped these out in 2018 to celebrate 40 years... It's kind of silly to keep celebrating them, after years of griping about them releasing sub-standard upgrades when AMD was floundering. Now that AMD has the proverbial crown it's all buddy-buddy with Intel and its history. I for one am waiting their 6-8 year turn around, that will shed entire business units and probably result in Intel copying AMD to technically be without a fab. They may not be what we remember, but it's infinitely better than the miserable "you only need 4 cores" statements from them for nearly a decade...when they are now claiming 20+ is something the average consumer should desire.
$360 (initial price of the 8080) would be $2,304 in today's money. For reference, Intel's current fastest desktop processor, the Core Ultra 9 285K, was recently launched at $589.
The MITS Altair 8800 introduced in 1975 was the first commercially successful PC, eventually selling around 25,000 units. It originated the first architectural standard for PCs in the S-100 expansion bus/backplane (modern motherboard). And it ran Altair BASIC, which was the first commercial software created by Microsoft. A bare-bones Altair 8800 today would cost $2,580 as a self-assembly kit, or $3,636 pre-assembled:
And the Gun Fight video game made by Taito (originally called Western Gun in Japan) was not just the first arcade game to use a microprocessor. It was also the first video game to depict graphic violence, because the goal was to shoot a human opponent:
For example, here is Intel revenue from 1993 to 2020.
Up and downs are quarter to quarter differences and there are two major drops in 2001 (9/11, internet bubble) and 2008 (housing bubble). Overall Intel continued to grow over this period. There are NO major ups and downs due to competition
Here is a zoom in over the last few years:
Never ever before has Intel revenue crashed like this without a worldwide major event. This is all due to competition for the first time in Intel’s history.
However this is only with all CPU mitigations disabled, otherwise it will need 24.2 seconds for calculator and 19.6 seconds for notepad.
PS. The PC was invented by IBM not Intel. :)