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 10 hours 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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[–] asmoranomar@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I wonder if it classifies as a general purpose microprocessor. It's common to see very specialized chips run faster than a typical CPU, but you're not going to run a consumer OS on it (if an OS at all). Even then, you'd sometimes need dedicated math coprocessors even if you had a CPU back then. It would be fascinating if it was true, cause that would likely mean it's also the world's first chip with an integrated math co-processor (IIRC)

Edit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-14_CADC

It is a general purpose microprocessor. Nice. Doesn't look like the co-processors were integrated. But a very impressive piece of hardware.