Texas Instruments was locked in a race with Intel to create the first microprocessor. By most accounts Intel won with the 4004, but there are a few die hard TI fans who say the TMS1000 was first, because it was the first “computer on a chip” and that the 4004 was just a calculator chip.
Texas Instruments followed the Intel 8080 with the 4-bit TMS1000. So, while Intel was leading the industry in microprocessors, TI led with this industry unique design “a computer on a chip”, specifically designed for control and automation purposes. The 1000 was the first MCU (MicroComputer Unit) , which is an MPU (MicroProcessor Unit) with other support chips (such as RAM, ROM, counters, timers, I/O interfaces) integrated on to the same silicon chip.