IP: The 8008 and the AL1

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Read both notes for flavor of issue


------ Forwarded Message
From: "Nick Tredennick" <bozo () computer org>
Organization: TechNerds International
Reply-To: <bozo () computer org>
Date: Sun, 12 May 2002 06:51:10 -0700
To: <dave () farber net>
Subject: The 8008 and the AL1

Hello Dave,

 

I¹m here to throw a little gasoline on the ³inventor of the first
microprocessor² story. I was an expert in a lawsuit some years ago when TI
was beating companies over the head with its ³Boone² patents. The Boone
patents are the TI patents on the 8008. There¹s no mention in the file
histories of these patents of Datapoint or of Intel. From what I saw, it¹s
clear that the specification came from Datapoint and that information leaked
between Intel and TI through Datapoint.

 

Here¹s the gasoline.

 

There¹s an article in the April 1970 issue of Computer Design describing
Four Phase Systems¹ 8-bit AL1 microprocessor (³Four-phase LSI logic offers
new approach to computer designer,² L. Boysel and J. Murphy, Computer
Design, pages 141-146, April, 1970). The AL1 was designed at Four Phase by
Lee Boysel and was shipping in data terminals from that company as early as
1969. I have looked at the AL1 design from the papers written about it
through the circuit diagrams and discussions with Lee Boysel and I believe
it to be the first microprocessor in a commercial system. Lee Boysel was
another of the experts in the same case. He built a system using an AL1,
ROM, and RAM as an exhibit in preparation for a trial that never came
(surprise, surprise).

 

I have studied the papers, patents, and file histories for the early history
of the microprocessor (though it¹s been ten years or so ago). Here are my
opinions from that study. The first microprocessor in a commercial product
was Four Phase Systems¹ AL1. The first commercially available (sold as a
component) microprocessor was the 4004 from Intel. The reason that TI had
such difficulty with its 8008 was that its designers adopted ideas from Lee
Boysel¹s Computer Design article without understanding how four-phase logic
works.

 

Motorola bought and eventually destroyed Four Phase Systems, so there¹s no
PR department to defend the AL1, leaving popular belief for the invention of
the microprocessor up for grabs by a surviving company.

 

Nick Tredennick

 


------ End of Forwarded Message




From: "Robert M. McClure" <rmm () unidot com>
Date: Sun, 12 May 2002 08:38:40 -0700
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: comments

I did not mean to imply and hope I did not suggest that Datapoint
(or TI or Intel) was the inventor of the microprocessor.  I was also
an expert in the case with Nick Tredennick described in his message
and also examined all the documents that he looked at.  He is
correct that the file wrappers for the TI patents do not mention
Datapoint, but there are clearly enough documents to show that
TI got the basic design from Datapoint.  One of the claims in the
patent is for an adder that is actually given as an example in R. K.
Richard's book Arithmetic Operations in Digital Computers, Van Nostrand,
1955.  So much for PTO investigation of prior art.

Most of us who have studied the question of the origin of the microprocessor
have concluded that it was simply an idea whose time had come. Throughout
the 1960's there was an increasing count of the number of transistors that
could be fabricated on one substrate, and there were several programs in
existence, both commercial and government funded, to fabricate increasingly
complex systems in a monolithic fashion.  One Wright Air Development Center
funded program at Texas Instruments was called Discretionary Wiring and
had as its objective (circa 1967-8) the ability to build wafer sized
systems.

I agree with Nick that Four Phase had a working system prior to the advent
of the 8008.  Datapoint (and I) knew it at the time.  That was, in fact, one
of
the reasons for undertaking the project of putting the 2200 processor on a
chip.  This was also one of the reasons I signed on to defend against the
Boone patents.

Therefore, I conclude that there is no more gasoline on the fire, and that
in fact, there is no fire.

Bob McClure


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