The Intel 8048 microcontroller, Intel's first µC, was used in the Magnavox Odyssey˛ video game console and (in its 8042 variant) in the original IBM PC keyboard. The 8048 is probably the most prominent member of Intel's MCS-48 familiy of microcontrollers. It was inspired by, and is somewhat similar to, t he Fairchild F8 microprocessor.
A 8048-family chip with UV EPROM, the 8749. This one is made by NEC.The 8048 has a modified Harvard architecture, with internal or external program ROM and 64–256 bytes of internal (on-chip) RAM. The I/O is mapped into its own address space, separate from programs and data. Though the 8048 was eventually replaced by the very popular Intel 8051, even at the turn of the millennium it remains quite popular, due to its low cost, wide availability, memory efficient one-byte instruction set, and mature development tools. Because of this it is much used in high-volume consumer electronics devices such as TV sets, TV remotes, toys, and other gadgets where cost-cutting is essential.