A Navajo weaving of an integrated circuit: the 555 timer

The 555 timer is iconic. Just iconic. I wonder how many billions of them have been shipped over the years?

It's really fortunate that the history of the 555 timer is really well documented. Its inventor, Hans Camenzind, wrote several books, and even had a Youtube channel in his later years[1]. It's a shame that so many iconic chips that have changed the world aren't so well documented. I went down a real rabbithole a while ago trying to find in-depth information about the Hitachi HD44780. I couldn't even decisively pin down exactly what year it was first manufactured. It's interesting to think of microchip designs as a kind of artistic legacy: Chips like the 555 have had an enormous impact on modern history.

1: https://www.youtube.com/@hcamen

I did see this article when I was researching, but it's incorrect. You can find references to the HD44780 in earlier catalogs. The earliest reference I can find is 1981: https://archive.org/details/Hitachi-DotMarixLiquidCrystalDis...

It's also referenced in this catalog from 1982: https://bitsavers.org/components/hitachi/_dataBooks/1982_Hit...

Likely the first year of manufacture was 1981/82.