[HN Gopher] A History of Early Microcontrollers, Part 1: Calcula...
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       A History of Early Microcontrollers, Part 1: Calculator Chips Came
       First (2022)
        
       Author : teuobk
       Score  : 97 points
       Date   : 2025-01-04 22:18 UTC (5 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.eejournal.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.eejournal.com)
        
       | colinprince wrote:
       | Also loved this:
       | 
       | https://technicshistory.com/2024/11/03/a-craving-for-calcula...
        
         | uticus wrote:
         | very nice.
         | 
         | > As the number of components in circuits grew, the number of
         | manufacturing steps also grew, and manufacturing error rates
         | multiplied--a device with one thousand components, each of
         | which a skilled worker could connect with 99.9% reliability,
         | had a 63% chance of having at least one defective connection.
         | The search for an end to this "tyranny of numbers" drove many
         | research projects in the late 1950s, most of them funded by the
         | various arms of the United States military, all of whom foresaw
         | an unending appetite for ever-more-sophisticated electronics to
         | control their weaponry and defense systems. The military-funded
         | projects included "micro-modules" (individual components that
         | would snap together like tinkertoys), "microcircuits" (wires
         | and passive components etched onto a ceramic substrate into
         | which active components, like transistors, could be connected),
         | and "molecular electronics" (nanotechnology avant la
         | lettre).[3]
        
           | userbinator wrote:
           | _"microcircuits" (wires and passive components etched onto a
           | ceramic substrate into which active components, like
           | transistors, could be connected)_
           | 
           | That eventually became a common construction technique for
           | automotive electronics:
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thick-film_technology
        
       | klelatti wrote:
       | May also be of interest on this topic:
       | 
       | https://thechipletter.substack.com/p/tiny-computers-from-tex...
        
         | asdefghyk wrote:
         | What happened to the comments about the above link? They were
         | there a few hours ago ?
        
           | kens wrote:
           | The comment is flagged and dead. You can see the comment tree
           | if you go to your profile and turn on showed.
        
             | asdefghyk wrote:
             | Thank you for your explanation. However I already had
             | showdead set to yes in my profile settings. I think I have
             | seen dead comments before, they where comments that where
             | in very light text,just about impossible to read, with out
             | a copy and paste to note pad or something. However nothing
             | appears i nthis case.
        
       | userbinator wrote:
       | The very first computers also essentially started as programmable
       | calculators.
        
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       (page generated 2025-01-09 23:02 UTC)