Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
3
The first months of 1972 that followed the incorporation of
KSI
were rather unusual. As with any typical start-up company,
KSI
needed capital, technology, and competent employees willing to
work in an underfunded young company. What was out of the
ordinary, however, was that the company's new employees were
given the tasks of writing software for non-existent hardware
and of building hardware out of Intel's novel semiconductor
devices, whose claimed utility to the electronics industry was
yet to be validated. One such device was the microprocessor.
As Ramer explained, “In designing the
MCM
/70, we totally
bet on the emerging microprocessor technology. We just pro-
ceeded, even before the first [8-bit] microprocessor was built.”
Another semiconductor device which Intel introduced almost
concurrently with the first microprocessor was the Electrically
Programmable Read-Only Memory (or
EPROM
).
While announcing its new devices and boldly proclaiming
a “new era of integrated electronics,” Intel became aware that
it was in immediate need of specialized hardware and soft-
ware aids to attract and support potential customers of its new
such aids was developed by Intel's Applications Research Group
during 1971 and 1972. For
KSI
's engineers, these microproces-
sor and
EPROM
development tools would provide a micro-
