Intel’s strategy of pioneering the memory market-place was risky. The adoption in the marketplace of RAM memory chips as a replacement for core memories was slow. As a consequence of slow sales of RAM chips (our standard products), we accepted a couple of custom chip projects to augment our standard part business. The development of the first 8-bit CPU chip at Intel was for Datapoint Corp.2 Although it was a ‘‘failed’’ custom project (ultimately, Datapoint never used it), the 8008 was announced as a standard Intel product in April 1972.3 We realized that selling CPU chips promoted memory chip sales, since at least 8 RAM chips wereneeded for every 8-bit CPU chip. Furthermore, users’ main memory needs were always increasing because of
application software demands.