Intel 8080 — launching the micro-computer revolution
Many herald the Intel 8080 microprocessor, released in 1974, as the chip that launched the microcomputer revolution. True, given that it powered the Altair 8800 and IMSAI 8080, the first computers available to the public.
The 8080 was yet another genius design by Federico Faggin and Masatoshi Shima, the chip designers behind the 4004 and 8008 processors.
In the early 1970s, Intel received considerable interest from around the world from device manufacturers seeking more capable and faster microprocessors. After the success of the 4004, this led Intel’s Faggin to work on a new chip, the 8008, and then the 8080.
Whereas the 8008 was an 8-Bit processor with a 14-bit address bus, Faggin and Shima wanted the 8080 to offer full 16-bit compatibility. They paired 8-Bit registers to offer real 16-bit instructions, and increased the address bus to 16-bit, allowing full access to a massive (at the time) 64Kb of memory. This required the use of a huge 40-pin package compared to the 8008’s 18-pin package, but this larger package simplified usage of the…