3 ms·

For those unaware, this is a 4 bit CPU! I'm assuming everyone moved to 8 bits after realizing how little you can do with 4. It would be neat to code some asm f

• userbinator 6y ago
  There are still plenty of 4-bit CPUs in use, many in products that you might not even realise have a CPU.
• jecel 6y ago
  Note that a "pure" 8 bit processor, one with 8 bit data and 8 bit addresses, can't do much either. That is why there were so few of them (like the Kenbak-1) and most 8 bit processor were a hybrid design with a wider address like 16 or (very rarely) 24 bits. You could have a hybrid 4 bit processor too. In fact, unless just 16 nibbles gets the job done you pretty much have to use a larger address. Applications where binary coded decimal math is more interesting than regular binary, such as calculators, can be a good use for a 4 bit processor. This was the original application of the 4004, for example. And Intel ads always talked about fuel pumps.
• mjcohen 6y ago
  One of the first computers on the west coast, the SWAC, built in 1950, had a 4-bit op code (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWAC_(computer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWAC_(computer)). For a year, it was the fastest computer in the world. I enjoyed programming it in the early 60's. I even wrote an assembler for it that ran on the 1401. It had a 36-bit word - 4-bit op code and 4 8-bit addresses. It had 256 words of Williams tube memory. It took up a whole room.