In 1978 we saw the airing of Now the Chips are Down, an episode of BBC’s Horizon documentary series addressing the microelectronic revolution. At the end of the program was a panel discussion, and the discussion had in the backdrop an image of a chip. What’s that chip?
I have already done some searching: it’s pretty low complexity, I think, and not one of the obvious early microprocessors. Someone at the time found and chose the image, for a UK television program, so it might possibly be a UK chip, perhaps by Philips (Mullard), Ferranti, Plessey.
The full length programme can be viewed on The Internet Archive or, subject to geo-blocking, on the BBC’s iPlayer site. The program without the subsequent panel discussion and therefore without the image can also be seen on DailyMotion.
I wonder - could the pad count be 16? Could it be a 4x4 register file? As a 74 series part, I think TI would make it, and there was a TI presence in Bedford.
In the second screen grab there seems to be some distortion on the top right. If the chip design is actually like that, then those skewed wires would be a very unique feature.
some sort of 4 bit bcd adder? My first thought was a 4-bit bitslice but the 2901 is far more complex than that. It could conceivably just be the ALU of a bitslice processor but I don’t think so. Even the 4004 was more complex that that. I’ld go along with the suggestion of some 74xx series.
The fact it’s a UK program from that era makes me wonder if reaching out to the BBC archives directly might actually get you somewhere—they’d have production notes on what was set-dressed for that panel. Long shot, but beats squinting at grabs.
