Microprocessors: The microprocessor industry shifts from hardware as the driving force in chip design to software, with the widespread acceptance of the UNIX operating system

Complex microprocessors are now so common that each major manufacturer offers a 32-bit chip. This year, however, the standardization of microprocessor operating systems has eclipsed the new chip introductions. The UNIX operating system, designed in the early 1970s by Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J., was used initially in minicomputers and later in mainframes. It became the virtual standard for 16- and 32-bit microprocessors when Motorola Inc., Intel Corp., National Semiconductor Corp., and Zilog Inc. obtained licenses in May 1983 from the Western Electric Co., which owns the rights to UNIX software, to develop versions of it for their chips.