First microprocessor? (not Intel 4004)

[RoGeorge]

Most of the historic sources will point to Intel 4004 as the first microprocessor.

Announcing a New Era of Integrated Electronics

Intel’s 4004 microprocessor began as a contract project for Japanese calculator company Busicom. Intel repurchased the rights to the 4004 from Busicom

www.intel.com

Intel 4004 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

However, the Intel 4004 was not the first microprocessor.

The first microprocessor was Ray Holt's MP944, designed for the F-14 fighter jets and therefore kept secret.
https://firstmicroprocessor.com/documents/

Ray Holt and the history of MP944/Cadc @ Rome Technopole, 2017
Leo Sorge

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GROYRkWvxc

 

[sko]

Wikipedia states the 4004 was the "first commercially available microprocessor", which is correct as the MP944 was never commercially available...

 

[VladiBG]

Who Invented the Microprocessor?

The microprocessor is hailed as one of the most significant engineering milestones of all time. The lack of a generally agreed definition of the term has supported many claims to be the inventor of the microprocessor. This article describes a chronology of early approaches to integrating the...

computerhistory.org

 

[LeoSorge]

The CHM article looks very accurate.

 

[VladiBG]

And the first IC

Jack Kilby - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ralphbsz]

Most of the historic sources will point to Intel 4004 as the first microprocessor.

That's because the winners get to write the history.

Another good claim to the first microprocessor is from Four Phase System, a spinout from Fairchild. They built a 24-bit minicomputer using LSI chips, which were de-facto microprocessors. Four Phase was later bought by Motorola, and marketed in Europe by Phillips (as the P7000).

One of my neighbors is one of the fathers of the modern microprocessor, and today in his "retirement" he moonlights as an expert witness in patent cases. So he gets dragged into court cases where companies claim to have invented something, and the Four Phase Systems often invalidates these claims.