Intel 8080
Encyclopedia
8-bit
The first widely adopted 8-bit microprocessor was the Intel 8080, being used in many hobbyist computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, often running the CP/M operating system. The Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 6800 were also used in similar computers...
microprocessor
Microprocessor
A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few integrated circuits. It is a multipurpose, programmable device that accepts digital data as input, processes it according to instructions stored in its memory, and...
designed and manufactured by Intel and was released in April 1974. It was an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008
Intel 8008
The Intel 8008 was an early byte-oriented microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel and introduced in April 1972. It was an 8-bit CPU with an external 14-bit address bus that could address 16KB of memory...
design, although without binary compatibility. The initial specified clock frequency limit was 2 MHz and with common instructions having execution times of 4,5,7,10 or 11 cycles this meant a few hundred thousand instructions per second
Instructions per second
Instructions per second is a measure of a computer's processor speed. Many reported IPS values have represented "peak" execution rates on artificial instruction sequences with few branches, whereas realistic workloads typically lead to significantly lower IPS values...
. The 8080 has sometimes been labeled "the first truly usable microprocessor", despite the fact that earlier microprocessors were used for calculators and other applications.
The 8080 was implemented using non-saturated enhancement-load NMOS
NMOS logic
N-type metal-oxide-semiconductor logic uses n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors to implement logic gates and other digital circuits...
, demanding an extra +12 volt and a −5 volt supply.
Programming model
Intel 8008
The Intel 8008 was an early byte-oriented microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel and introduced in April 1972. It was an 8-bit CPU with an external 14-bit address bus that could address 16KB of memory...
. It used the same basic instruction set
Instruction set
An instruction set, or instruction set architecture , is the part of the computer architecture related to programming, including the native data types, instructions, registers, addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external I/O...
as the 8008 (developed by Computer Terminal Corporation) and was source code compatible with its predecessor, but added some handy 16-bit operations to the instruction set as well. The 8080's large 40-pin DIP
Dual in-line package
In microelectronics, a dual in-line package is an electronic device package with a rectangular housing and two parallel rows of electrical connecting pins. The package may be through-hole mounted to a printed circuit board or inserted in a socket.A DIP is usually referred to as a DIPn, where n is...
packaging permitted it to provide a 16-bit address bus
Address bus
An address bus is a computer bus that is used to specify a physical address. When a processor or DMA-enabled device needs to read or write to a memory location, it specifies that memory location on the address bus...
and an 8-bit data bus, allowing easy access to 64 kilobyte
Kilobyte
The kilobyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Although the prefix kilo- means 1000, the term kilobyte and symbol KB have historically been used to refer to either 1024 bytes or 1000 bytes, dependent upon context, in the fields of computer science and information...
s of memory.
Registers
The processor had seven 8-bit registersProcessor register
In computer architecture, a processor register is a small amount of storage available as part of a CPU or other digital processor. Such registers are addressed by mechanisms other than main memory and can be accessed more quickly...
, (A, B, C, D, E, H, and L) where A was the 8-bit accumulator and the other six could be used as either byte-registers or as three 16-bit register pairs (BC, DE, HL) depending on the particular instruction. Some instructions also enabled HL to be used as (a limited) 16-bit accumulator, and a pseudoregister, M, could be used almost anywhere that any other register could be used and referred to the memory address pointed to by HL. It also had a 16-bit stack pointer
Stack-based memory allocation
Stacks in computing architectures are regions of memory where data is added or removed in a last-in-first-out manner.In most modern computer systems, each thread has a reserved region of memory referred to as its stack. When a function executes, it may add some of its state data to the top of the...
to memory (replacing the 8008's internal stack
Stack (data structure)
In computer science, a stack is a last in, first out abstract data type and linear data structure. A stack can have any abstract data type as an element, but is characterized by only three fundamental operations: push, pop and stack top. The push operation adds a new item to the top of the stack,...
), and a 16-bit program counter
Program counter
The program counter , commonly called the instruction pointer in Intel x86 microprocessors, and sometimes called the instruction address register, or just part of the instruction sequencer in some computers, is a processor register that indicates where the computer is in its instruction sequence...
.
Commands/instructions
As with many other 8-bit processors, all instructions were encoded in a single byte (including register-numbers, but excluding immediate data), for simplicity. Some of them were followed by one or two bytes of data, which could be an immediate operand, a memory address, or a port number. Like larger processors, it had automatic CALL and RET instructions for multi-level procedure calls and returns (which could even be conditionally executed, like jumps) and instructions to save and restore any 16-bit register-pair on the machine stack. There were also eight one-byte call instructions (RST) for subroutines located at the fixed addresses 00h, 08h, 10h,...,38h. These were intended to be supplied by external hardware in order to invoke a corresponding interruptInterrupt
In computing, an interrupt is an asynchronous signal indicating the need for attention or a synchronous event in software indicating the need for a change in execution....
-service routine, but were also often employed as fast system call
System call
In computing, a system call is how a program requests a service from an operating system's kernel. This may include hardware related services , creating and executing new processes, and communicating with integral kernel services...
s. The most sophisticated command was XTHL, which was used for exchanging the register pair HL with the value stored at the address indicated by the stack pointer.
8-bit instructions
Most 8-bit operations could only be performed on the 8-bit accumulator
Accumulator (computing)
In a computer's central processing unit , an accumulator is a register in which intermediate arithmetic and logic results are stored. Without a register like an accumulator, it would be necessary to write the result of each calculation to main memory, perhaps only to be read right back again for...
(the A register). For dyadic 8-bit operations, i.e. 8-bit operations with two operands, the other operand could be either an immediate value, another 8-bit register, or a memory cell addressed by the 16-bit register pair HL. Direct copying was supported between any two 8-bit registers and between any 8-bit register and an HL-addressed memory cell. Due to the regular encoding of the MOV-instruction (using a quarter of available opcode space) there were redundant codes to copy a register into itself (MOV B,B, for instance), which was of little use, except for delays. However, what would have been a copy from the HL-addressed cell into itself (i.e., MOV M,M) was instead used to encode the HLT
HLT
In the x86 computer architecture, HLT is an assembly language instruction which halts the CPU until the next external interrupt is fired. Such interrupts are used by devices in order to signal to the CPU that an event occurred which the CPU shall react on...
instruction (halting execution until an external reset or interrupt).
16-bit operations
Although the 8080 was generally an 8-bit processor, it also had limited abilities to perform 16-bit operations: Any of the three 16-bit register pairs (BC, DE, HL) or SP could be loaded with an immediate 16-bit value (using LXI), incremented or decremented (using INX and DCX), or added to HL (using DAD). The XCHG operation exchanged the values of HL and DE. By adding HL to itself, it was possible to achieve the same result as a 16-bit arithmetical left shift with one instruction. The only 16-bit instructions that affect any flag are DAD H/D/B, which sets the CY (carry) flag in order to allow for programmed 24-bit or 32-bit arithmetics (or larger), needed to implement floating point arithmetics, for instance.
Input output port space
The 8080 supported up to 256 input/outputInput/output
In computing, input/output, or I/O, refers to the communication between an information processing system , and the outside world, possibly a human, or another information processing system. Inputs are the signals or data received by the system, and outputs are the signals or data sent from it...
(I/O) ports, accessed via dedicated I/O instructions—taking port addresses as operands. This I/O mapping scheme was regarded as an advantage, as it freed up the processor's limited address space. Many CPU architectures instead use so-called memory mapped I/O, in which a common address space is used for both RAM and peripheral chips. This removes the need for dedicated I/O instructions, although a drawback in such designs may be that special hardware must be used to insert wait states as peripherals are often slower than memory. However, in some simple 8080 computers, I/O was indeed addressed as if they were memory cells, "memory mapped", leaving the I/O commands unused. I/O addressing could also sometimes employ the fact that the processor would output the same 8-bit port address to both the lower and the higher address byte (i.e. IN 05h would put the address 0505h on the 16-bit address bus). Similar I/O-port schemes were used in the backward compatible Zilog Z80 and Intel 8085 as well as the closely related x86 families of microprocessors.
Separate stack space
One of the bits in the processor state word (see below) indicates that the processor is accessing data from the stack. Using this signal, it is possible to implement a separate stack memory space. However, this feature was seldom used.The internal state word
For more advanced systems, during one phase of its working loop, the processor set its "internal state byte" on the data bus. This byte contains flags which determine if the memory or I/O port is accessed, and whether it was necessary to handle an interrupt.The interrupt system state (enabled or disabled) was also output on a separate pin. For simple systems, where the interrupts were not used, it is possible to find cases where this pin is used as an additional single-bit output port (the popular Radio86RK computer made in the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, for instance).
Pin usage
The address bus had its own 16 pins, and the data bus had eight pins that were possible to use without any multiplexing. Using the two additional pins (read and write signals), it was possible to assemble simple microprocessor devices very easily. Only the separate IO space, interrupts and DMA required additional chips to decode the processor pin signals. However, the processor load capacity was limited, and even simple computers frequently contained bus amplifiers.The processor required three power sources (−5, +5 and +12 volt(V)) and two non-interlacing high-amplitude synchronization signals. However, at least the late Soviet version КР580ВМ80А was able to work with a single +5 V power source, the +12 V pin being connected to +5 V and the −5 V pin to ground. The processor consumed about 1.3 W of power.
The pinout table, from the chip's accompanying documentation, described the pins as follows:
| Pin number | Signal | Type | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A10 | Output | Address bus 10 |
| 2 | GND | - | Ground |
| 3 | D4 | Bidirectional | Bidirectional data bus. The processor also transiently sets here the "processor state", providing information about what the processor is currently doing:
|
| 4 | D5 | ||
| 5 | D6 | ||
| 6 | D7 | ||
| 7 | D3 | ||
| 8 | D2 | ||
| 9 | D1 | ||
| 10 | D0 | ||
| 11 | −5 V | - | The −5 V power supply. This must be the first power source connected and the last disconnected, otherwise the processor will be damaged. |
| 12 | R | Input | Reset. The signal forces execution of commands located at address 0000. The content of other processor registers is not modified. This is an inverting input (the active level being logical 0) |
| 13 | DMA | Input | Direct memory access request. The processor is requested to switch the data and address bus to the high impedance ("disconnected") state. |
| 14 | INT | Input | Interrupt request |
| 15 | CLC2 | Input | The second phase of the clock generator signal |
| 16 | ACK INT | Output | The processor had two commands for setting 0 or 1 level on this pin. The pin normally was supposed to be used for interrupt control. However, in simple computers it was sometimes used as a single bit output port for various purposes. |
| 17 | RD | Output | Read (the processor reads from memory or input port) |
| 18 | WR | Output | Write (the processor writes to memory or output port). This is an inverted output, the active level being logical zero. |
| 19 | S | Output | Active level indicates that the processor has put the "state word" on the data bus. The various bits of this state word provide additional information for supporting the separate address and memory spaces, interrupts, and direct memory access. This signal is required to pass through additional logic before it can be used to write the processor state word from the data bus into some external register. |
| 20 | 5 V | - | The + 5 V power supply |
| 21 | ACK DMA | Output | Direct memory access confirmation. The processor switches data and address pins into the high impedance state, allowing another device to manipulate the bus |
| 22 | CLC1 | Input | The first phase of the clock generator signal |
| 23 | RDY | Input | Wait. With this signal it was possible to suspend the processor's work. It was also used to support the hardware-based step-by step debugging mode. |
| 24 | WAIT | Output | Wait (indicates that the processor is in the waiting state) |
| 25 | A0 | Output | Address bus |
| 26 | A1 | ||
| 27 | A2 | ||
| 28 | 12 V | - | The +12 V power supply. This must be the last connected and first disconnected power source. |
| 29 | A3 | Output | The address bus; can switch into high impedance state on demand |
| 30 | A4 | ||
| 31 | A5 | ||
| 32 | A6 | ||
| 33 | A7 | ||
| 34 | A8 | ||
| 35 | A9 | ||
| 36 | A15 | ||
| 37 | A12 | ||
| 38 | A13 | ||
| 39 | A14 | ||
| 40 | A11 | ||
Physical implementation
The 8080 integrated circuitIntegrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
used non-saturated enhancement load nMOS
NMOS logic
N-type metal-oxide-semiconductor logic uses n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors to implement logic gates and other digital circuits...
gates, demanding extra voltages (for the load-gate bias). It was manufactured in a silicon gate process using a minimum feature size of 6 µm. A single layer of metal was used to interconnect
Electrical connection
An electrical connection between discrete points allows the flow of electrons . A pair of connections is needed for a circuit.Between points with a low voltage difference, direct current can be controlled by a switch...
the approximately 6,000 transistor
Transistor
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. A voltage or current applied to one pair of the transistor's terminals changes the current...
s in the design, but the higher resistance
Electrical resistance
The electrical resistance of an electrical element is the opposition to the passage of an electric current through that element; the inverse quantity is electrical conductance, the ease at which an electric current passes. Electrical resistance shares some conceptual parallels with the mechanical...
polysilicon
Polycrystalline silicon
Polycrystalline silicon, also called polysilicon, is a material consisting of small silicon crystals. It differs from single-crystal silicon, used for electronics and solar cells, and from amorphous silicon, used for thin film devices and solar cells....
layer, which required higher voltage for some interconnects, was implemented with transistor gates. The die
Die preparation
Die preparation is a step of semiconductor device fabrication during which a wafer is prepared for IC packaging and IC testing. The process of die preparation typically consists of 2 steps: wafer mounting and wafer dicing.-Wafer mounting:...
size was approximately 20 mm².
Applications and successors
The 8080 was used in many early microcomputers, such as the MITS Altair 8800Altair 8800
The MITS Altair 8800 was a microcomputer design from 1975 based on the Intel 8080 CPU and sold by mail order through advertisements in Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics and other hobbyist magazines. The designers hoped to sell only a few hundred build-it-yourself kits to hobbyists, and were...
Computer, Processor Technology
Processor Technology
Processor Technology Corporation was a microcomputer company founded by Bob Marsh and Gary Ingram in April 1975. Its best known product is the Sol-20 computer.-History:...
SOL-20 Terminal Computer and IMSAI 8080
IMSAI 8080
The IMSAI 8080 was an early microcomputer released in late 1975, based on the Intel 8080 and later 8085 and S-100 bus. It was a clone of its main competitor, the earlier MITS Altair 8800. The IMSAI is largely regarded as the first "clone" computer. The IMSAI machine ran a highly modified version of...
Microcomputer, forming the basis for machines running the CP/M
CP/M
CP/M was a mass-market operating system created for Intel 8080/85 based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc...
operating system (the later, almost fully compatible and more capable, Zilog Z80
Zilog Z80
The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog and sold from July 1976 onwards. It was widely used both in desktop and embedded computer designs as well as for military purposes...
processor would capitalize on this, with Z80 & CP/M becoming the dominant CPU & OS combination of the period circa 1976 to 1983 much as did the x86 & MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
for the PC a decade later). Even in 1979 after introduction of the Z80 and 8085 processors, five manufacturers of the 8080 were selling an estimated 500,000 units per month at a price around $3 to $4 per unit. The first single-board microcomputer
Single-board computer
A single-board computer is a complete computer built on a single circuit board, with microprocessor, memory, input/output and other features required of a functional computer. Unlike a typical personal computer, an SBC may not include slots into which accessory cards may be plugged...
s, such as MYCRO-1
MYCRO-1
The MYCRO-1 was a microcomputer manufactured and sold by Mycron of Oslo, Norway. Built around the Intel 8080 CPU, it was probably the first commercial single-board computer.-External links:*...
and the dyna-micro were based on the Intel 8080. One of the early uses of the 8080 was made in the late 1970s by Cubic-Western Data of San Diego, CA in its Automated Fare Collection Systems custom designed for mass transit systems such as BART and others around the world. An early industrial use of the 8080 was as the "brain" of the DatagraphiX Auto-COM (Computer Output Microfiche) line of products which took large amounts of user data from reel-to-reel tape and imaged it onto microfiche. The Auto-COM instruments also included an entire automated film cutting, processing, washing, and drying sub-system – quite a feat, both then and in the 21st century, to all be accomplished successfully with only an 8-bit microprocessor running at a clock speed of less than 1 MHz with a 64 KB memory limit. In addition, several early arcade
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
video games were built around the 8080 microprocessor. Space Invaders
Space Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
was perhaps the most popular such title.
Shortly after the launch of the 8080, the Motorola 6800
Motorola 6800
The 6800 was an 8-bit microprocessor designed and first manufactured by Motorola in 1974. The MC6800 microprocessor was part of the M6800 Microcomputer System that also included serial and parallel interface ICs, RAM, ROM and other support chips...
competing design was introduced, and after that, the MOS Technology 6502
MOS Technology 6502
The MOS Technology 6502 is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by Chuck Peddle and Bill Mensch for MOS Technology in 1975. When it was introduced, it was the least expensive full-featured microprocessor on the market by a considerable margin, costing less than one-sixth the price of...
variation of the 6800. Zilog
Zilog
Zilog, Inc., previously known as ZiLOG , is a manufacturer of 8-bit and 24-bit microcontrollers, and is most famous for its Intel 8080-compatible Z80 series.-History:...
introduced the Z80
Zilog Z80
The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit microprocessor designed by Zilog and sold from July 1976 onwards. It was widely used both in desktop and embedded computer designs as well as for military purposes...
, which had a compatible machine-language instruction set and initially used the same assembly language as the 8080, but for legal reasons, Zilog developed a syntactically-different (but code compatible) alternative assembly language for the Z80. At Intel, the 8080 was followed by the compatible and electrically more elegant 8085
Intel 8085
The Intel 8085 is an 8-bit microprocessor introduced by Intel in 1977. It was binary-compatible with the more-famous Intel 8080 but required less supporting hardware, thus allowing simpler and less expensive microcomputer systems to be built....
, and later by the assembly language compatible 16-bit 8086
Intel 8086
The 8086 is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and mid-1978, when it was released. The 8086 gave rise to the x86 architecture of Intel's future processors...
and then the 8/16-bit 8088
Intel 8088
The Intel 8088 microprocessor was a variant of the Intel 8086 and was introduced on July 1, 1979. It had an 8-bit external data bus instead of the 16-bit bus of the 8086. The 16-bit registers and the one megabyte address range were unchanged, however...
, which was selected by IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
for its new PC
IBM PC
The IBM Personal Computer, commonly known as the IBM PC, is the original version and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform. It is IBM model number 5150, and was introduced on August 12, 1981...
to be launched in 1981. Later NEC
NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
made a NEC V20
NEC V20
The NEC V20 was a processor made by NEC that was a reverse-engineered, pin-compatible version of the Intel 8088 with an instruction set compatible with the Intel 80186...
(a 8088 clone with Intel 80186
Intel 80186
The 80188 is a version with an 8-bit external data bus, instead of 16-bit. This makes it less expensive to connect to peripherals. The 80188 is otherwise very similar to the 80186. It has a throughput of 1 million instructions per second....
instruction set compatibility) which also supported an 8080 emulation mode. This was also supported by NEC's V30 (a similarly enhanced 8086 clone). Thus, the 8080, via its ISA, made a lasting impact on computer history.
In the Soviet Union, manufacturers cloned the 8080 microprocessor's layout geometry and started to produce them under the name KP580ИK80 (later marked as KP580BM80
KR580VM80A
The KR580VM80A was a Soviet microprocessor, a clone of the Intel 8080 CPU. Different versions of this CPU were manufactured beginning in the late 1970s, the earliest known use being in the SM1800 computer in 1979. Production ceased with the fall of the USSR. Initially called the K580IK80 , it was...
), where even the pins were placed identically. This processor was the base of the Radio86RK (Радио 86РК in Russian), probably the most popular amateur single-board computer in the Soviet Union. Radio86RK's predecessor was the Micro-80 (Микро-80 in Russian), and its successor the Orion-128 (Орион-128 in Russian) which had a graphical display. Both were built on the KP580 processor. According to some sources, the Soviet analog had two undocumented instructions, specific to itself; however, these were not widely known.
Another model compatible with Intel 8080A, named MMN8080, was produced at Microelectronica Bucharest in Romania. There was also a compatible Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
CPU named MCY7880 and the Czech-made Tesla MHB 8080A.
Industry change
The 8080 also changed how computers were created. When the 8080 was introduced, computer systems were usually created by computer manufacturers such as Digital Equipment CorporationDigital Equipment Corporation
Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...
, Hewlett Packard, or IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
. A manufacturer would produce the entire computer, including processor, terminals, and system software such as compilers and operating system. The 8080 was actually designed for just about any application except a complete computer system. Hewlett Packard developed the HP 2640
HP 2640
The HP 2640A and other HP 264X models were block-mode "smart" and intelligent ASCII standard serial terminals produced by Hewlett Packard using the Intel 8008 and 8080 microprocessors.-History:...
series of smart terminals around the 8080. The HP 2647 was a terminal which ran BASIC on the 8080. Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
would market as its founding product the first popular programming language for the 8080, and would later acquire DOS
DOS
DOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is an acronym for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions 95, 98, and Millennium Edition.Related...
for the IBM-PC.
The 8080 and 8085 gave rise to the 8086 which was designed as a source compatible (not binary compatible) extension of the 8085. PCs based upon the 8086 design and its successors evolved into workstations and servers of 16, 32 and 64 bits, with advanced memory protection, segmentation, and multiprocessing features, blurring the difference between small and large computers (the 80286 and 80386's protected mode
Protected mode
In computing, protected mode, also called protected virtual address mode, is an operational mode of x86-compatible central processing units...
were important in doing so). The size of chips has grown so that the size and power of large x86 chips is not much different from high end architecture chips, and a common strategy to produce a very large computer is to network many x86 processors.
The basic architecture of the 8080 and its successors has replaced many proprietary midrange and mainframe computers, and withstood challenges of technologies such as RISC. Most computer manufacturers have abandoned producing their own processors below the highest performance points. Though x86 may not be the most elegant, or theoretically most efficient design, the sheer market force of so many dollars going into refining a design has made the x86 family today, and will remain for some time, the dominant processor architecture, even bypassing Intel's attempts to replace it with incompatible architectures such as the iAPX 432
Intel iAPX 432
The Intel iAPX 432 was a commercially unsuccessful 32-bit microprocessor architecture, introduced in 1981.The project was Intel's first 32-bit microprocessor design, and intended to be the company's main product line for the 1980s. Many advanced multitasking and memory management features were...
and Itanium
Itanium
Itanium is a family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture . Intel markets the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance computing systems...
.
History
Federico FagginFederico Faggin
Federico Faggin , who received in 2010 the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by Barack Obama, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on scientists, engineers, and inventors, at the White House in Washington, is an Italian-born and naturalized U.S...
, the originator of the 8080 architecture in early 1972, proposed it to Intel's management and pushed for its implementation. He finally got the permission to develop it six months later. Faggin
Federico Faggin
Federico Faggin , who received in 2010 the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by Barack Obama, the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on scientists, engineers, and inventors, at the White House in Washington, is an Italian-born and naturalized U.S...
hired Masatoshi Shima
Masatoshi Shima
is a Japanese electronics engineer, who was one of the designers of the world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004, along with Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff, and Stanley Mazor....
from Japan who did the detailed design under his direction, using the design methodology for random logic with silicon gate that Faggin had created for the 4000 family. Stanley Mazor
Stanley Mazor
Stanley Mazor is an American engineer who was born on 22 October 1941 in Chicago, Illinois. He was one of the designers of the world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004, together with Ted Hoff, Masatoshi Shima, and Federico Faggin.-Early years:...
contributed a couple of instructions to the instruction set.
Cultural impact
- AsteroidAsteroidAsteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...
8080 Intel8080 Intel8080 Intel is a Main belt asteroid.It was discovered by CERGA on November 17, 1987 in Caussols. It was named after the influential Intel 8080 microprocessor.- References :*[ftp://ftp.lowell.edu/pub/elgb/astorb.html The Asteroid Orbital Elements Database]...
is named as a pun and praise on the name of Intel 8080. - Microsoft's published phone number, 425-882-8080, was chosen because so much early work was on this chip.
- Many of Intel's main phone numbers also take a similar form: xxx-xxx-8080