The single-chip microcomputer is coming into its own as the state-of-the-art is MOS integrated circuit design advances. LSI technology made possible the original single-chip microcomputers and VLSI technology is bringing about a revolution in single-chip microcomputer capability. This paper discusses the world of single-chip microcomputers from low-end four bit architectures to high performance 16-bit architectures and describes some of the tradeoffs involved in each product area.
