this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2025
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retrocomputing

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The MP944 was the ‘real’ world’s first microprocessor, but it was top secret for nearly 30 years — F-14 Tomcat's chip lived in the shadow of the Intel 4004, but was eight times faster (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 2 months ago by cm0002@libretechni.ca to c/retrocomputing@lemmy.sdf.org
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For a long time, what is now considered to be a prime candidate for the title of the ‘world’s first microprocessor’ was a very well-kept secret for nearly 30 years. The MP944 is the inauspicious name of the chip we want to highlight today. It was developed to be the brains behind the U.S. Navy’s F-14 Tomcat’s Central Air Data Computer (CADC). Thus, it isn’t surprising that the MP944 was a cut above the Intel 4004, the world’s first commercial microprocessor, which was designed to power a desktop calculator.

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[–] CovfefeKills@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

They have chips with water channels cut into the die itself for 1000w/square inch compared to commercial data center chips that can do 300w/square inch.