Texas Instruments was locked in a race with Intel to create
the first microprocessor. By most accounts Intel won with the 4004, but
there are a few die hard TI fans who say the TMS1000 was first, because it
was the first “computer on a chip” and that the 4004 was just a
calculator chip.
Texas Instruments followed the Intel 8080 with the 4-bit TMS1000. So,
while Intel was leading the industry in microprocessors, TI led with this
industry unique design "a computer on a chip", specifically
designed for control and automation purposes. The 1000 was the first MCU
(MicroComputer Unit) , which is an MPU (MicroProcessor Unit) with other
support chips (such as RAM, ROM, counters, timers, I/O interfaces)
integrated on to the same silicon chip.
The original 1000 family consists of 6 chips the TMS1000 and TMS1200
are basic chips, the TMS1070 and TMS1270 are high voltage versions to
interface to displays, the TMS1100 and TMS1300 provide twice the on-board
ROM and RAM. The TMS1000, TMS1070, and TMS1100 are 28-lead packages, the
TMS1200, TMS1270, and TMS1300 are 40-lead versions of the same chips (just
200 to the 28-lead chip numbers).
In the 80's TI added to the 1000 family. The 28-lead TMS1170 started
with a TMS1100 base and added fluorescent display drive capability and
expanded memory (2KB ROM). The TMS1370 was the same as the TMS1170 and
added 27 I/O lines. An expanded memory group based on the original TMS1000
chips was also created. They were the TMS1400, TMS1470, and TMS1700 (64
Bytes RAM, 4KB ROM). There were 40-lead versions of the TMS1400 and
TMS1470, which because the TMS1600 and TMS1670. CMOS versions were
also added, denoted with a "C" suffix, such as TMS1200C.
The TMS1000 also had system evaluator chips. The original evaluator
chips were the TMS1098 and TMS1099. These 64-lead evaluator chips
were ROM-less versions of their corresponding standard chips. The TMS1099
supported the TMS1000/TMS1200 and the TMS1070/1270. The TMS1098 supported
the TMS1100/1300. Later evaluators were introduced to support the entire
TMS1000 family, they were the SE1000P (supports TMS1000,1070,1200,1700),
SE2200P (supports TMS1100,1170,1300,1370), and the SE1400P (supports 1400,
1470, 1600, 1670).
The success of the the TMS1000 is demonstrated by its long lifecycle
(over 20 years) and its expanded product line. The TMS1000 is found in
many appliances, control systems, and games. Most of these chips were
sourced by companies for direct use in their products and will have custom
or house numbers on the chips (not the standard numbers listed above).
Even TI used custom numbers in its products. The TMS1000 was used as a
customized chip in the Texas Instruments "Speak and Spell"
educational toy line (See Pictures at bottom).
