When a customer requested custom ICs for its new calculator, Intel’s Ted Hoff proposed an alternate solution: a general-purpose 4-bit computer on just four chips. Federico Faggin adapted the company’s MOS memory technology to squeeze the 4004 microprocessor’s 2,300 transistors onto a single chip.

Intel, seeing the potential for sales to other customers, secured marketing rights. They introduced this groundbreaking microcomputer chip family to the world in 1971 as the MCS-4 Micro Computer Set.

Not even a year later Intel released their first 8 bit CPU and an updated MCS-8 microcomputer.