The MC14500B Industrial Control Unit (ICU) is a CMOS one-bit

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for simple control applications in 1977.

Overview

MC14500B (ICU) is well-suited to the implementation of

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, and thus could be used to replace

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated swit ...

systems and programmable logic controllers, also intended for serial data manipulation. The processor supports 16 commands, operating at a frequency of 1 MHz. The MC14500B unit does not include a

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(PC); instead, a clock signal drives a separate PC chip; therefore the size of supported memory is dependent on the implementation of that chip. It was still in production in 1995. The ICU architecture is similar to that of the DEC PDP-14 computer.

Developers

The ICU was conceived by Vern Gregory in the mid-1970s while working as an engineer in a marketing / applications group of Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector in Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Brian Dellande originated circuit and sub-routine designs, and co-wrote the manual; Ray DiSilvestro was the bench technician; Terry Malarkey provided management support. In the CMOS Logic Division in Austin, Texas, USA (where it was made) Phil Smith was the chip designer; Mike Hadley provided product applications support.

Derivatives

A form of the design served as an embedded controller in a custom automotive chip made for Nippon Denso by Motorola—Japan.

I.P.R.S. Băneasa The electronics industry in the Socialist Republic of Romania was characterized by stronger ties to Western Europe when compared to other countries in the Eastern Bloc due to the drive of the Romanian leadership towards greater autonomy from the S ...

manufactured a clone of the MC14500B with the designation βP14500 in IIL technology (rather than the original CMOS).

Notable uses

One of the computers known to be based on this processor is the educational

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1-bit computer (512 bits of RAM, LED, I/O, keyboard).

References

External links

* * * * * {{Motorola processors Motorola microprocessors Motorola microcontrollers