Emerging role and impact of the microprocessor

SINCE ISSCC speakers first addressed the subject ten years ago, LSI has become a reality with a broad impact across the world. Industries, here and abroad, have developed, on somewhat different time scales, with rather different emphasis and strengths . . . The Asian and particularly the European IC industry, owe much to consumer electronics influence, whereas the American IC industry is characterized by emphasis on data processing and transmission. Until the appearance of LSI, much of the development of electronic techniques, both in electronic and other industries, were based on the flexibility with which a relatively small variety of components could be arranged in many forms to achieve an almost unlimited number of functions. With the advent of LSI, enormous scale and weight reductions became possible, leading to increased reliability, but to a large extent, the design flexibility which characterized old-time electronics was in danger of being lost. The custom LSI approach, as it emerges among many European manufacturers, is a method of recovering circuit design flexibility, while taking full advantage of the other capabilities of LSI and retaining the economies associated with large-scale fabrication . . . The American industry, on the other hand, is somewhat more characterized by emphasis on standard LSI parts, especially in memories and microprocessors. Specific application of this type of LSI technology requires a definition of software and ROM firmware, and, in addition, structuring of an application interface. The new mix of designer skills required has strong professional implications, especially in the continuing technical education area, as reflected in the impact of LSI and microprocessors on the career developments of engineers . . . These evolving relationships forecast new trends in schooling, and technology research, development and applications.