It’s All About Power - Inventing the PC - page 81

the microprocessor was not to satisfy Kutt's curiosity with re-
spect to emerging semiconductor technologies; rather, it was to
show that the microprocessor offered a revolutionary new ap-
proach to computer hardware design and that those who em-
barked on the microprocessor path had a great opportunity
to renew the computer industry and to benefit from the poten-
tially unlimited personal microcomputer market. The spirit of
this product development philosophy is lost in Ramer's report,
and so is the analysis of the microprocessor industry, which,
when properly conducted, would show its rapid growth in terms
of new microprocessors' capabilities and sales. By 1974, Intel
was no longer the sole company in possession of the necessary
technology for the volume manufacturing of four- and eight-
bit microprocessors; Fairchild, Microsystems International,
Motorola, National Semiconductor, Rockwell, Texas Instru-
ments, and other semiconductor manufacturers were ready to
supply the electronics industry with their microprocessor prod-
ucts. It was not a question of “if” but “when” the 8080 would
be followed by even better chips.
Ramer was not against the 8080 approach. In fact, when the
company decided to halt the development work on an 8080
machine during the 15 April managers' meeting, and it was
agreed that the 8080 project “will be held in abeyance,” Ramer
pleaded for an early completion of the 8080 emulator to enable
him to start on the 8080 APL software. This project, according
to Ramer, would have to start in May in order to have software
ready by the end of 1974. One may therefore interpret Ramer's
rather conservative approach toward future hardware develop-
ment at MCM , as represented by his report, as a plea to salvage
as much of the hard work on the MCM /70 software done by
his group as possible. Indeed, the use of the 8080 would re-
quire rewriting of the MCM APL / AVS / EASY software, and that
required resources - perhaps the very resources that the com-
pany was wasting by investigating the possibility of patenting
the bank switching technique it used in the MCM /70 to address