The Unexpected Birth of the First Microcontroller: It Wasn't Rocket Science, It Was Calculators

This article tells the story of the first microcontroller's creation. It wasn't born from a high-tech project, but rather from Texas Instruments engineer Gary Boone's burnout and family issues. To address the need for customized calculator chips, Boone and his colleagues designed the TMS1802NC, a single-chip calculator containing a processor, memory (RAM and ROM), and I/O—essentially the first microcontroller. Released in 1971, it predated the Intel 4004 microprocessor by two months. This unexpected development not only solved Boone's personal problems but also ushered in a new era for microcontrollers.