Artifact Details

Title

National Semiconductor 32000 Microprocessor oral history panel

Catalog Number

102658246

Type

Document

Description

Beginning in 1979, National Semiconductor developed the industry's first 32-bit microprocessor family, the Series 32000. Featuring important MPU design firsts, including demand paged virtual memory and floating point and interrupt control units, it was hailed by observers as "the best in breed." With teams of engineers in Santa Clara and Israel, it also represented one of the first international microprocessors design collaborations. This oral history describes the conception, design and marketing of the family and explores the reasons why this technically superior product did not succeed in the market place.

Date

2008-02-26

Contributor

Alpert, Don, Participant
Bal, Subhash, Participant
Freund, Robert, Participant
Laws, David, Editor
Sanquini, Richard, Moderator
Yaron, Giora, Participant

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Place of Publication

Mountain View, Calif.

Extent

31 p.

Category

Transcription

Subject

Swordfish; National Semiconductor Corporation; 32000; VAX computers--History; superscalar; semiconductor history; Israel; UNIX; Alpert, Donald; Bal, Subhash; Freund, Robert; Yaron, Giora; Sanquini, Richard; Hollander, Yoav

Collection Title

Oral history collection

Lot Number

X4430.2008