(Lesson strength: Insight/6, Knowledge/5, Inspiration/7, Application/3; Lesson time:<5 min)

Welcome to my on-line classroom and the second in a series of brainstorms on the technological mashup known as mechatronics. Today we look back to one of the most significant developments in the history of this interdisciplinary design philosophy.

It was June 1968. I had just finished the 3rd grade, and was beginning to develop my skills in the fine art of match lighting and tossing lit smoke bombs. I was also learning to swim, and spent many nights riding my bike (sometimes no handed) under the streetlights that illuminated my neighborhood on Cleveland’s west side.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, an engineer by the name of Ted Hoff, one of Intel Corp.’s earliest hires, was called on to work with a customer trying to build a solid-state calculator. Hoff studied the proposed design, based on 12 custom ICs, but wasn’t convinced it was the optimum solution. He proved himself right when he discovered an alternative (single-chip) approach that relied not on hardware operations but on “programming” sequences that manipulated data using memory and register functions.

Thus the microprocessor was born, putting silicon and steel — and by extension, mechanical and electrical engineering — on a collision course of meteoric proportions, the impact of which has been felt for some time. In fact, the first microprocessors were used almost entirely in industrial controllers, overseeing mechanical components and systems.

That’s all you need to know for today.

Be sure to check this link on your way out.

BIRTH OF THE MICROPROCESSOR