AMD Am9080

AMD Am9080.

Am9080 is a CPU manufactured by AMD. It was originally produced without license as a clone of the Intel 8080, reverse-engineered by Shawn Hailey, Kim Hailey and Jay Kumar by photographing an early Intel chip and developing a schematic and logic diagrams from the images.[1] In initial production, the chips cost about 50 cents to make, yielding 100 chips per wafer, and were sold into the military market for $700 each. The first versions of the Am9080 became available in April 1974. This CPU operated at a speed of 2 MHz. Later, an agreement was made with Intel to become a licensed second source for the 8080, enabling both manufacturers' chips to break into markets that would not accept a single-sourced part.

References

  1. "Interview with Shawn and Kim Hailey". Stanford University Libraries. December 29, 1997. Retrieved 2011-10-20.