“A computer’s arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) is the heart of the processor, performing arithmetic and logic operations on data. If you’ve studied digital logic, you’ve probably learned how to combine simple binary adder circuits to build an ALU. However, the 8008’s ALU uses clever logic circuits that can perform multiple operations efficiently. And unlike most 1970’s microprocessors, the 8008 uses a complex carry-lookahead circuit to increase its performance. The 8008 was Intel’s first 8-bit microprocessor, introduced 45 years ago.1 While primitive by today’s standards, the 8008 is historically important because it essentially started the microprocessor revolution and is the ancestor of the x86 processor family that are probably using right now.2 I recently took some die photos of the 8008, which I described earlier. In this article, I reverse-engineer the 8008’s ALU circuits from these die photos and explain how the ALU functions.”
Related Content
Related Posts:
- Analyzing the vintage 8008 processor from die photos: its unusual counters
- Die photos and analysis of the revolutionary 8008 microprocessor, 45 years old
- Talking to memory: Inside the Intel 8088 processor’s bus interface state machine
- Inside an unusual 7400-series chip implemented with a gate array
- The Intel 8088 processor’s instruction prefetch circuitry: a look inside
- Reverse engineering standard cell logic in the Intel 386 processor
- Inside the Intel 386 processor die: the clock circuit
- Reverse engineering the Intel 386 processor’s register cell
- Examining the silicon dies of the Intel 386 processor
- How flip-flops are implemented in the Intel 8086 processor