Sord (today, the Toshiba Personal Computer System Corporation) developed the SMP80/08 microcomputer — which was to be smaller and less expensive than a minicomputer — in tandem with Intel's April 1972 announcement of its 8008 8-bit microprocessor unit. The SMP80/08, however, failed to live up to its potential and never went into commercial production.
Despite this, after Intel announced the world's first general-purpose microprocessor unit, the 8080, in April 1974, Sord made a huge splash when it announced the SMP80/x series as the first computer to run on the 8080 the following month at a business show. At a time when no personal computers existed, the SMP80/x series marked a giant first leap toward the popularization of computers.
