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make the
FRED
chip a reality. He would have to wait until 1974
for the two-chip realization of his processor, and until 1976 for
its single-chip implementation. By then
RCA
wasn't calling it
FRED
, but the
COSMAC
microprocessor.
Although System 00 never went into production, Weisbecker
continued his efforts to interest
RCA
in his
FRED
ideas. In one
of his 1972 memos he writes: “
FRED
is an exciting new con-
sumer product possibility. For the first time, a full power elec-
tronic computer could be available at the price of a hi-fi system
or colour
TV
. Every home and classroom is a potential cus-
ing its hardware around the single-chip
FRED
microprocessor,
using an ordinary
TV
set as the display monitor and an audio
cassette player to store and retrieve data and programs. But in
the early 1970s,
RCA
was more interested in his microprocessor
than in the new reincarnations of
FRED
that Weisbecker con-
tinued to design;
FRED
1,
FRED
1.5, and
FRED
2 existed only
as prototypes, and, outside of
RCA
, only Weisbecker's daugh-
ters had the opportunity to use some of them in their home.
Finally, in 1974,
FRED
found its way into the catalogues of
RCA
consumer Electronics products. First, it became the
RCA
MicroTutor - a little microcomputer used by
RCA
to showcase
its
COSMAC
microprocessor architecture. Then, in 1977, it
became the
RCA
COSMAC
VIP
single-board microcomputer
and the Studio
II
programmable game console, one of the earli-
est of its type on the consumer market. In 1976, Weisbecker of-
fered the smallest of the
FRED
s to the computer hobbyists. He
named it
ELF
and published its design in a three-part article in
The
FRED
microprocessor earned Weisbecker the prestigious
RCA
David Sarnoff Outstanding Achievement Award “for the
design of a new computer architecture appropriate for mass
production of microprocessors.” Realized as the
RCA
CDP
1802
COSMAC
microprocessor, it paved
RCA
's way into the lucrative
