What was the first commercial application of microprocessors?

Answer: Calculator

The first commercial microprocessors were simple but revolutionary small computer and design magic. Unlike the individual integrated circuits that preceded them, microprocessors were standalone computing devices. Before the introduction of the first commercial microprocessor ̵

1; the Intel 4004 in 1971 – computers had to be expanded by placing dozens (if not hundreds) of individual integrated circuits on large circuit boards. Due to the space used and the heat generated, early computers were expensive to build and difficult to cool. The advent of the commercial microprocessor opened a veritable flood of development and innovation. Calculations that previously required large circuit boards could be packed efficiently and cost-effectively into discrete and easy-to-cool chips.

The first commercial application of this revolutionary invention was practically a calculator. Even more remarkable when using the microprocessor for the first time is that the company was responsible for its existence behind the computer that powered it. In 1969, Busicom, a Japanese pocket calculator company, approached Intel with a calculator design designed to maximize computational power while minimizing the number of integrated circuits required.

Engineers from both companies began to work on the design, with fewer and fewer individual integrated circuits. While working on the project, Intel engineer Ted Hoff created the prototype that gave rise to the Intel 4004. Within a decade of this first commercial exploitation, the microprocessor had found its way into everything from handheld games to rocket control systems, and a technological revolution triggered

Image Public Domain / Wikimedia.