Texas Instruments TMS1000

Texas Instruments TMS1100 microcontroller inside the Parker Brothers Merlin electronics game.

The TMS1000 is a family of microcontrollers introduced by Texas Instruments in 1974.^[1]^[2]^[3]

It combined a 4-bit central processor unit, read-only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), and input/output (I/O) lines as a complete "computer on a chip". It was intended for embedded systems in automobiles, appliances, games, and measurement instruments.

It was the first high-volume, general-purpose^[4] commercial microcontroller. In 1974, chips in this family could be purchased in volume for around $2 each.^[5] By 1979 about 26 million parts in this family were sold every year.^[6]

The TMS 1000 was used in Texas Instruments' own Speak & Spell educational toy,^[5] the Big Trak programmable toy vehicle and in the electronic game Simon.^[7]

^ Texas Instruments (2006). "Texas Instruments History 1970's". Archived from the original on 18 January 2006. 1974: Introduces TMS1000 one-chip microcomputer.
^ Texas Instruments (2005). "TMS 1000 One-Chip Microcomputers". Archived from the original on 13 February 2005. This is Texas Instruments' original 1974 announcement of the TMS1000 family.
^ Siewiorek, Daniel P.; Bell, C. Gordon; Newell, Allen, eds. (1982). "Part 3: Computer Classes, Section 1: Monolithic Microcomputers". Computer Structures: Principles and Examples. McGraw-Hill. p. 583. ISBN 0-07-057302-6. Retrieved 8 November 2017. The TMS1000 was introduced in 1974 and used in the SR-16 calculator.
^ 1974: General-purpose microcontroller family is announced (Computer History Museum)
^ ^a ^b Zurawski, Richard (2009). Embedded Systems Handbook: Embedded Systems Design and Verification (2nd ed.). CRC Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-1439807637.
^ Morton Jr., David L.; Gabriel, Joseph (2007). Electronics: The Life Story of a Technology. JHU Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0801887734.
^ Austin, Michael (2016). "Ch. 1". Music Video Games: Performance, Politics, and Play. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1501308505.

[1] Texas Instruments (2006). "Texas Instruments History 1970's". Archived from the original on 18 January 2006. 1974: Introduces TMS1000 one-chip microcomputer.

[2] Texas Instruments (2005). "TMS 1000 One-Chip Microcomputers". Archived from the original on 13 February 2005. This is Texas Instruments' original 1974 announcement of the TMS1000 family.

[3] Siewiorek, Daniel P.; Bell, C. Gordon; Newell, Allen, eds. (1982). "Part 3: Computer Classes, Section 1: Monolithic Microcomputers". Computer Structures: Principles and Examples. McGraw-Hill. p. 583. ISBN 0-07-057302-6. Retrieved 8 November 2017. The TMS1000 was introduced in 1974 and used in the SR-16 calculator.

[4] 1974: General-purpose microcontroller family is announced (Computer History Museum)

[RZ09-5] Zurawski, Richard (2009). Embedded Systems Handbook: Embedded Systems Design and Verification (2nd ed.). CRC Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-1439807637.

[6] Morton Jr., David L.; Gabriel, Joseph (2007). Electronics: The Life Story of a Technology. JHU Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0801887734.

[7] Austin, Michael (2016). "Ch. 1". Music Video Games: Performance, Politics, and Play. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1501308505.

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