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TI TMS1000 Developer Texas Instruments Introduction date 1974 Model TMS1000 Transistors 8,000 Clock 400 kHz Bus Width 4-bit Lithography 8 μm Memory Specs Max Memory 32KB Packaging Package 28-pin PDIP

The TMS1000 was a 4-bit microprocessors first introduced to the general market in 1974 by Texas Instruments. The TMS1000 is the world's first single-chip microprocessor created in September of 1971. However, unlike the Intel 4004, it was not released to general market until 1974.

History

In September of 1971, the TMS1000 was completed. It was the first microprocessors ever created, designed by Texas Instruments engineers Gary Boone and Michael Cochran. Gary patented the invention on Aug 31, 1971. On Sep 4, 1973, he was awarded U.S. Patent 3,757,306. Unlike Intel's chips, TI's was not placed into the general market until 1974. Instead TI used the chip for their calculators.

After being slightly refined, the chip was released to general market in 1974. A few dozen different variations were created with various ROM and RAM sizes. Due to its cheap price, the TMS10000 enjoyed a tremendous success in consumer electronics being used in everything from calculators, toys, games, and various appliances as well as photocopying machines and juke boxes.

Overview

The TMS 1000 had a relatively simple design with only 43 instructions and 2 general purpose registers. Similar to the Intel 4004, the chip only had a single level of stack and no interrupts.