Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
Whats the smallest computer you could make?
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joeqsmith:

--- Quote from: ChristofferB on May 31, 2019, 09:21:09 am ---One chip - Motorola 6801/6805.
Basically a 6800 with a sprinkle of ram (I think 128 bytes) and a mask rom in the same package. Still not a microcontroller! Still had Von Neumann-architecture.

I believe they made them with a piggyback eprom soctet on top for the romantic,  too.

--- End quote ---

I don't think we started using the word microcontroller when the 01 was released, not that it's not one.   

My book from 1981, Motorola uses the term microcomputer
1983, same
1984, they still use the term microcomputer, even for the 6811
Looking at my 1988 book, I see they are using microcontroller 

Maybe someone else could chime in on when that term was first introduced.
magic:
I suppose you could build a universal Turing machine from a magnetic tape head and a few logic chips to manage state transitions.

Everybody else is trying to sell you an overkill >:D
TomS_:

--- Quote from: magic on May 31, 2019, 11:59:04 am ---I suppose you could build a universal Turing machine from a magnetic tape head and a few logic chips to manage state transitions.

Everybody else is trying to sell you an overkill >:D

--- End quote ---

If we're going there, why not a (E)EPROM state machine, which could potentially be single chip?  ^-^
EEVblog:
Tiny FPGA?
magic:

--- Quote from: TomS_ on May 31, 2019, 12:06:10 pm ---If we're going there, why not a (E)EPROM state machine, which could potentially be single chip?  ^-^

--- End quote ---
That would be a finite state machine, wouldn't it?
A Turing machine starts with some input data and instructions and starts churning, producing new data on the tape, never seen before. If it runs out of tape, you load a bigger one and pretend it's infinite.
A finite state machine is designed to only ever assume a certain number of pre-determined states and every calculation it performs is just a walk through a path intended by the designer. I wouldn't call that a computer.

But EEPROM or SRAM could be employed with a bidirectional counter to replace tape in the 21st century ;)
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