25th Anniversary for Microprocessor

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the microprocessor, measured from November 15, 1971--the day an advertisement for the Intel 4004 first appeared in Electronic News Magazine. However, acknowledges its "inventor," Dr. Marcian E. (Ted) Hoff Jr., the development of what many see as the heart of the computer revolution wasn't so much an invention as it was an evolution. "Going back as far as 1958, there had been lots of literature talking about building a monolithic computer using vacuum tubes," he said, "but by the mid to late 60's, although many of us were trying to figure out how to build a computer on a chip, the yield from the semiconductor manufacturing process was still too low for it to be practical."