First commercial microprocessor in history, the legendary Intel 4004, was specifically designed in 1971 to power a high-end Japanese desktop calculator.

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First commercial microprocessor in history, the legendary Intel 4004, was specifically designed in 1971 to power a high-end Japanese desktop calculator. The client originally requested twelve separate custom chips to run their fancy mathematical machine, but Intel engineer Marcian Hoff realized that integrating the functions onto a single programmable silicon chip would be infinitely more efficient. Intel boldly bought back the design rights for sixty thousand dollars, correctly gambling that this tiny four-bit piece of silicon might have a few other practical applications outside of aggressive long division. That single corporate decision revolutionized modern computing and effectively sealed our fate to become utterly dependent on microscopic rocks that have been tricked into thinking by shooting electricity through them