page_title: Intel 8080
hierarchical_section_title: Intel 8080
caption_attribution_description: English: CPU Intel i8080
context_page_description: The Intel 8080 is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibility. The initial specified clock rate or frequency limit was 2 MHz, and with common instructions using 4, 5, 7, 10, or 11 cycles this meant that it operated at a typical speed of a few hundred thousand instructions per second. A faster variant 8080A-1 became available later with clock frequency limit up to 3.125 MHz.
  The 8080 needs two support chips to function in most applications, the i8224 clock generator/driver and the i8228 bus controller, and it is implemented in N-type metal-oxide-semiconductor logic using non-saturated enhancement mode transistors as loads thus demanding a +12 V and a −5 V voltage in addition to the main transistor–transistor logic compatible +5 V.
  Although earlier microprocessors were used for calculators, cash registers, computer terminals, industrial robots, and other applications, the 8080 became one of the first widespread microprocessors.
context_section_description: The Intel 8080 ("eighty-eighty") is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel.  It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibility. The initial specified clock rate or frequency limit was 2 MHz, and with common instructions using 4, 5, 7, 10, or 11 cycles this meant that it operated at a typical speed of a few hundred thousand instructions per second. A faster variant 8080A-1 (Sometimes called the 8080B) became available later with clock frequency limit up to 3.125 MHz.
  The 8080 needs two support chips to function in most applications, the i8224 clock generator/driver and the i8228 bus controller, and it is implemented in N-type metal-oxide-semiconductor logic (NMOS) using non-saturated enhancement mode transistors as loads thus demanding a +12 V and a −5 V voltage in addition to the main transistor–transistor logic (TTL) compatible +5 V.
  Although earlier microprocessors were used for calculators, cash registers, computer terminals, industrial robots, and other applications, the 8080 became one of the first widespread microprocessors. Several factors contributed to its popularity: its 40-pin package made it easier to interface than the 18-pin 8008, and also made its data bus more efficient; its NMOS implementation gave it faster transistors than those of the P-type metal-oxide-semiconductor logic (PMOS) 8008, while also simplifying interfacing by making it TTL-compatible; a wider variety of support chips was available; its instruction set was enhanced over the 8008; and its full 16-bit address bus (versus the 14-bit one of the 8008) enabled it to access 64 KB of memory, four times more than the 8008's range of 16 KB. It became the engine of the Altair 8800, and subsequent S-100 bus personal computers, until it was replaced by the Z80 in this role, and was the original target CPU for CP/M operating systems developed by Gary Kildall.
  The 8080 was successful enough that translation compatibility at the assembly language level became a design requirement for the Intel 8086 when its design began in 1976, and led to the 8080 directly influencing all later variants of the ubiquitous 32-bit and 64-bit x86 architectures.
caption: An Intel C8080A processor variant with white ceramic, a gold heat spreader, and gold pins.
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