Intel 8080

An extended and enhanced Intel 8008, designed to be general purpose in contrast to the previous models like the 4004 that was originally designed for a calculator. The Intel 8080 was released in 1974 and is a 8-bit processor designed to run at 2 MHz. It contains 6000 transistors.

The improvements made the 8080 easier to use for general purpose machines and greatly contributed to democratize microcomputers. A notable example using the 8080 is the Altair 8800.

The chips were incorporated in 40-pin DIP packages and manufactured with a 6 µm process. The packages can be found as white (C8080) and grey (D8080) ceramic versions as well as plastic (P8080) ones.

Intel C8080 Intel D8080 Intel P8080A
  • A White Ceramic C8080. Bottom: Mexico, No Date Code.
  • A Grey Ceramic D8080. Bottom. 1983, Week 23.
  • A Plastic P8080A. Bottom: Malaysia, 1977 Week 24.

It was succeeded by the Intel 8085, released in 1976.