TI SN74LS481: A Better Bit-Slicer
TI SN74LS481J -1980 – 8 MHZ 4-bit Slice
The 1970’s was a rush to design new and innovative processors, faster, more features, and more bits. Most of the processors were new designs, a few were single chip implementations of older mainframes (such as the TMS9900 and the Intersil 6100. At the same time there was a competition of 4-bit processors. Somewhat remarkable in 1976 considering 16-bit designs were now being released. The most famous was of course the AMD AM2901, which undoubtable won the battle. There were others, the MMI 6701 (a company which AMD would go on to merge with). Motorola had the MC10800, made in ECL and Intel made the ill-fated (probably since it was only 2-bits) Intel 3002 Processor. TI made the SBP0400 in I2L that enjoyed some success, but that apparently wasn’t enough. In 1976, the same year as the SBP0400, the 6701 and the AMD AM2901, TI released the SN74S481. This was a Schottky TTL 4-bit slice processor (and the SN74S482 sequencer for it). It was a bit different than its competition.
