In December 20091 Federico Faggin (see p. 55) wrote “TWO inventions have
shaped our modern world more that any other: the engine and the computer. Where
the engine captured and extended the human capacity to do physical work, the
computer did the same for the capacity of the human brain to think, organize and
control. . . ”. Federico Faggin, who was part of the team that developed the Intel
4004, the world’s first commercially successful microprocessor released in 1971,
was commissioned to write this article by New Scientist to celebrate the microprocessor’s
victory in a poll to find the discovery that has had the greatest impact on
the world in the past 50 years.2 That having been said, this was from a field of only
ten nominated discoveries, but nevertheless it won with 48% of the vote, followed
by the World Wide Web at 31%; which in reality is only made possible by the microprocessor