Busicom 141-PF

The electronic calculator 141-PF made by Busicom Corp. was the first to load the first commercial microprocessor, the Intel 4004. Busicom Corp. played a major role in the development of this processor.

Nippon Calculating Machine Corporation, which later changed it's name to Busicom Corp., was supplying calculators to domestic and foreign companies as an OEM. At that time, hardware had to be designed individually according to the client's detailed specifications, so reduction of development cost and time was necessary. Therefore, the company planned for a new electronic calculator that would meet individual specifications by changing the software instead of the hardware, and asked Intel, which had pMOS semiconductor technology, to develop the LSI. After some discussion, M. E. (Ted) Hoff of Intel proposed the concept of a generic logic device for Busicom's design. Engineers from Intel and Masatoshi Shima from Busicom led the development of the microprocessor 4004, which was completed in March 1971.

In October of 1971 Busicom started selling the electronic calculator 141-PF, using this 4004, and supplied this product to other companies as an OEM. Intel bought back the selling rights of the 4004 because of the large potential of the microprocessor and started public sales of the 4004 in November 1971.