(Replying to PARENT post)

I was taking a VLSI design course around that time; our instructor came into class with a fist-size block of plexiglass, with an iAPX 432 chipset embedded in it. A gift from Intel. The chips were HUGE.

I have Elliot Organick's book on the 432. It is not fun reading.

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(Replying to PARENT post)

Only one chip wasn't even enough, the amount of die needed and the limited lithography at the time meant Intel had to split it into three huge and expensive chips.

One of the crazier aspects of the design was that the chip design basically required the Ada computer language to take over the world. As far as predictions of the future go that has to be one of the most expensive misses of all time.

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(Replying to PARENT post)

I found the book on Bitsavers.

http://www.bitsavers.org/components/intel/iAPX_432/Organick_...

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