Twenty five Years Young

November, 1971, just twenty five years ago, saw the launch of the first commercially available microprocessor, the 4004 from Intel Corp. When Shockley's transistor replaced the slow, power hungry valve as the main electronic component, it began the process which led to the development of the microprocessor and ultimately to the powerful personal computers we have today.

In 1957 a group of young engineers left Shockley's Semiconductor Labs to form their own company, Fairchild Semiconductor. In 1958 the first integrated circuit was demonstrated by Jack Kilby. In 1968 Andrew Grove, Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore resigned from Fairchild to form Intel (the name derived from Integrated Electronics!) In 1969 a Japanese company, Busicom, asked Intel to develop an integrated circuit processor. The result, as they say, is history.

You can find more details of this fascinating story and of the subsequent development of the microcomputer, on the web. Here are just a few links to start you off.