Styx - Too Much Time On My Hands
STYX
Borepatch posted about a guy who got Linux to run a 4004 microprocessor. My response to this foolishness is the above tune. But then SiGraybeard wonders if the 4004 can actually do anything useful, which got me to wondering. I mean, the stupidest microcontroller I ever dealt with was Intel's 8051 and comparing it to a 4004 is like comparing a Cadillac to a kid's tricycle. So what was it used for? Somebody asked this question on Quora and got a boatload of answers. I liked these:
Intel 4004 was the first commercially available microprocessor. This 4-bit microchip was released in 1971 and was mainly designed by Federico Faggin and Masatoshi Shima. It was designed for use in calculators, automated teller machines and cash machines. - Odysseus Hoang
Basically Intel realised they were having to reinvent the wheel for every calculator manufacturer that came along with a different specification for a new device.
They decided it would be better to create a processor with a fixed set of instructions, with the new functionality to be provided by the code burnt into ROM. Future changes can be accommodated by changing the code in the ROM, not a total redesign of the chip. - John Stephenson
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