Computer Memory is now 4,000,000,000,000 time larger then 49 years ago

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The Intel 1702A EPROM  (1971) has only 256 bytes of memory - today the USB Flash drive has 1 Terabyte of memory --- that is  an  incredible  4,000,000,000,000 times more memory.  This is a number so large I just can not sort it out in my mind. 

1000 GB or 1 Terabyte
Flash Drive. It would take
125.000,000,000 C2708 chips
to have this much memory!!!!

Moore's law seems to be working after 56 years. Gordon Moore made the observation and prediction in 1965 that the density of components on a silicon chip would double every 2 years. 

The USB Flash drive to the left has 1 Terabyte of memory.

That is 1000 Gigabytes.

It would take 125,000,000,000 of the Intel C-2708 Chips to equal this amount of memory.  A really big change in 56 years of technology.  This 1 Terabyte USB flash drive cost $39.00. 

Please note the Intel C-2708 has 125 times more memory than the Intel 1702 EPROM at the top of page. 

Help wanted 

 A project to make presentation displays for 
 2708 EPROM memory chips and a little history.

Intel C-2708 EPROM
memory chips.

I have 359 of these really nice Intel 2708 EPROM chips purchased in 1987. These chips are all nice white ceramic with gold pins and gold tops. They are part of my 45 years of collecting microcomputer memorabilia. 

What I want to do is make a presentation case/display for use as example of this early microcomputer and memory technology.  

Curious about EPROM memories - take a look here at a my blog post about the very first EPROM -  the Intel 1702A - Get an idea of  how and why they were used. "CLICK"

Intel C2708 EPROM 

A Smart display/presentation case is easily  possible.

A small Raspberry pie microcomputer can be included to provide many photos/videos and text that could be picked up on a smart phone using Bluetooth/WiFi connection. The unit could be connected to the internet with WiFi and linked to selected information on line about the history of microcomputers.

The use of these EPROMs is nice because the quartz window allowing a view of the IC chip. You should know the window was not put there for you to look into the IC - the window allows the memory to be erased by exposing the chip to UV light.

Photo of the 2708 EPROM
silicon chip that is viewed through
the quartz window on the IC.

It would be very nice to include a way to see into the window on the 2708 and get some idea what the actual silicon chip looks like. This could be a magnifying glass or maybe a photo of the chip would be best. Of course with the smart part of the presentation case just a view of the proper web site may be best way to obtain  more information.

Bottom side of 2708 EPROM
showing date code of 1977 &
made in Malaysia.

All my IC 2708 chips have a 1977 date code time of manufacture.

More information about EPROM memories - here is my video of the 1702 the very first EPROM chip. You will find this interesting. 

Summary of project:

To build and market a beautiful small  presentation case about microcomputer technology - most  likely out of wood that could be on the desk or appropriate space on the wall. The unit could be just a nice piece on the desk of those who have an interest in microcomputer history or are currently involved in the technology.  It would be a great conversation piece with the smart technology to bone up on the history of microelectronic technology and a real piece of history included - the Intel 2708 EPROM. 

Contact Information"CLICK"                                                              

David Larsen
 Blog Author

"by David Larsen"  Chantilly Farm owner, Computer Historian, and amateur radio operator -KK4WW   & N4USA .  I work out of one of the Tiny Homes at Chantilly Farm. A great place to work if you like the to be out in nature. I am 81 and ready to sell Chantilly Farm - I have a few more  projects I would like to do - if you have an interest to know more give me a call. 540 392 2392

Discrete component electronics to Integrated Circuits - 50 years of change

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A very short summary of the 50 years -  From individual transistors used to make electronic circuits in 1965 to one integrated circuit (smaller than your thumbnail)  microprocessor chip containing 5.5 billion transistors in 2015.
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The Integrated Circuit (IC) changed electronics in a very big way.  Jack Kilby demonstrated a working example for the IC made of germanium  in 1958 and six months  later  Robert Noyce demonstrated his own idea of the IC made of silicon that  solved many practical problems of producing an IC. The invention of the IC was a new way of building electronic circuits and Jack Kilby received the Nobel Prize in physics  in December 2000. These notes from Wikipedia.

A lesson in electronic circuit manufacturing prior to the IC.
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click on photo to enlarge

7 transistor Radio 

Transistors were invented in 1947 and became a practical amplifier design element in about 1957.

Here is a look at the inside of a 1965 transistor radio made with 7 transistors.

 In 2007 one large memory IC contained a sufficient number of transistors to make more than one billion of these radios.

7 transistor Radio

Looking closer at the inside of the transistor radio you see the 2 black transistors with 3 legs and a few resistors, capacitors and inductors.  These are all discrete components.

These discrete components can be replaced by circuitry in a single IC - and by the billions in the one IC. An IC can have manufactured into the chip - diodes, resistors, capacitors, and transistors. However the chip count is always just the number of transistors. As of 2015, the highest transistor count in a commercially available CPU (in one IC chip) is over 5.5 billion transistors - Intel's 18-core Xeon Haswell-EP.

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click on photo to enlarge

Vacuum tube amplifier

          Vacuum tubes were invented in 1904 by  John Ambrose Fleming and later individual transistors in 1947 invented by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley are the amplifying element in all electronic circuits.
         This photo is an amplifier from an electronic instrument (Oscilloscope 1960) with about 36 tubes. The whole instrument had about 100 tubes. The amplifier is about 12 inchs by 12 inchs.
Transistors replaced vacuum tubes as amplifying devices in the 60's. Transistors are much smaller than vacuum tubes, use less power, generate less heat and in theory never wear out making circuits much smaller & use much less power.

discrete components

The bottom of the amplifier containing all the needed resistors and capacitors needed to make the circuit operational.

This is called discrete component design because each part is a single  separate part - (resistor or capacitor in the design).




click on photo to enlarge

Components by Khrulev Alexey E.

Examples of discrete components.

resistors & capacitor - discrete components

Several discrete components in a circuit - resistors and capacitor wired together. The red device is the capacitor and is about 1/2 inch by 1/4 inch in size.

An IC smaller than the capacitor in 2005 contained more than a billion-transistors  on a single chip and in 2007  tens of billions of memory transistors on a single chip. I don't know what is available today, these numbers are just hard to imagine on a single chip.


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Click on photo to enlarge 

IC chip containing millions of transistors

ICs have two main advantages over discrete circuits: cost and performance. Cost is low because the chips, with all their components, are printed as a unit by photolithography rather than being constructed one transistor at a time. Furthermore, packaged ICs use much less material than discrete ², with up to 9 million transistors per mm². Performance is high because the IC's components switch quickly and consume little power (compared to their discrete counterparts) as a result of the small size and close proximity of the components. As of 2012, typical chip areas range from a few square millimeters to around 450 mm.
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Carol Milazzio

Some nice photos taken in our museum by Carol Milazzio KP4MD during a recent visit - "Take a look Click"
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David Larsen

This blog post has been fun for me as a way to reminisce. I began to use vacuum tubes in 1952 as an amateur radio operator at 14 years old.  Later my teaching for 31 years at Virginia Tech started in 1967 with vacuum tubes and ended in 1998 using microcomputers. I experienced the whole range from tubes to large scale Integrated Circuits.

           .^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian} 

Vintage Computers - The "Bugs" are 40 years old !

8080 Bugbook 

Bugbooks

Integrated Circuit looks like a Bug 

When Bugbooks 1 & 2 were written a logo was needed for the books and other projects. The books were written to teach basic digital electronics using small Scale Integrated Circuits.  I named the books bugbooks because the small digital integrated circuit looked like a bug with its legs. I had made several attempts at a logo however they were not very inspiring. The best I can remember Professor Peter Rony ask students to submit their ideas for a logo and  this one was selected.  I have been very pleased with this logo and it has made many millions of impressions during the past 40 years. The 'Bugs' logo has been great as a branding image for the work of my colleagues and myself.

Here are a few examples of the Bugs use during the past 40 years.
Enlarge the photo's by clicking on them and then even more by a right click and select "View image' you can easily read the text.

Code card 1978 

John Titus designed this very useful octal code card for 8080 microprocessor machine code programming in 1978.

Japanese translation
 of Bugbook 2

Japanese translation of Bugbook 2 in 1976. The Bugs logo is prominent on the front cover. Several of the Bugbooks were included in these translations.

Italian Bugbooks

An advertising button used by our Italian representative.  Our group had a large presence in Italy during the late 70's and early 80's. About 20 of our Bugbooks were translated into Italian,  we taught 15 or so microcomputer instrumentation seminars, and a lot of the MMD-1 training computers were sold.

Fist Fighter code fixer 

Our group was called "The Blackburg Group" and the Bugbooks was one of the group's many ideas and projects. Here is a product Dr. John Titus designed for the amateur radio market. This was called the fist fighter and it made perfect code out of code sent manually with a telegraph key. A very clever idea but it was not a popular product.  It did use the 'Bugs Logo' as you can see in an expanded photo.



More information about the name and use of the 'Bugs' & 'Bugbooks'

The reason I call our museum  "The Bugbook Historical Microcomputer Museum"  is because of the "Bugbooks"

Bugs Logo 

. About 1974 I was part of a team that produced these books. The first two Bugbooks were written and published by Professor Rony and I.  I named the books bugbooks because the small digital integrated circuit looked like a bug with its legs.  Professor Rony typed the manuscripts and we self published the first few printings of the "Bugbooks" . www.bugbookcomputermuseum.com  These books were the start of a book series called "The Blacksburg Continuing Education Series" .  The books covered various topics of digital electronics, computers and software. Dr. John Titus and Dr. Chris Titus joined the group and became important members of our team.  During the period 1974 to 1984 about 75 books were published with a circulation of over 1 million copies.  Our team hired 31 other authors to help write books in the series. In addition to the books our team designed several computers and other teaching / engineering aids that were sold world wide. John Titus was the computer designer and I designed the digital engineering  / teaching hardware aids.  Many engineers, technicians and  electronic hobbyist of the late 70's and 80s used  these books and hardware.  All the books and hardware are on display in our museum. A reoccurring comment from  folks visiting the museum is - I  learned digital electronics from the "Bugbooks". The Bugbook story involves many relationships, interesting events and eclectic people.  It is my  intent to get the details of these adventures in writing -- soon I hope.

David Larsen 

It has been an interesting 40 years.  I am still getting calls about the Bugbooks and other computer and electronic things. Just tonight a fellow here in Floyd called and was in need of a 10 ohm resistor. He could not find a shop in the area that sold these parts.  I was able to find one in my old junk pile and will deliver it to him tomorrow.  He needed it for his computer power supply - Still doing computer projects.
WOW just as I posted this I received an email from Earles L. McCaul the author of   TRS-80 ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE MADE SIMPLE.  This is one of the books in our "Blacksburg" series of books from 1981.

  ^{"by David Larsen"  KK4WW Computer Collector Historian}   
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