Intel Museum releases 4004 microprocessor schematics on chip's 35th anniversary

Intel is celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Intel 4004, their very first microprocessor, in a way they've never done before, by releasing the chip's schematics, maskworks, and users manual to the public for non-commercial use. This historic revelation was championed by Tim McNerney, who designed the Intel Museum's newest interactive exhibit. Opening on November 15th, the exhibit will feature a fully-functional, 130x scale replica of the 4004 microprocessor running the very first software written for the 4004. To create a giant Busicom 141-PF calculator for the museum, 'digital archeologists,' Fred Huettig, Brian Silverman, and Barry Silverman, first had to reverse-engineer the 4004 schematics and the Busicom software. Their re-drawn and verified schematics plus an animated 4004 simulator written in Java are available at the team's unofficial 4004 web site. Digital copies of the original Intel engineering documents are available by request from the Intel Corporate Archives. Intel first announced their 2,300 transistor 'micro-programmable computer on a chip' in Electronic News on November 15, 1971, proclaiming 'a new era of integrated electronics.' Who would have guessed how right they were?