AMD Am9080

AMD Am9080

General information
Launched	1975
Marketed by	AMD
Designed by	Intel
Common manufacturer	AMD
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate	2 MHz to 4 MHz
Data width	8 bits
Address width	16 bits
Physical specifications
Transistors	4,500 or 6000
Cores	1
Package	40-pin DIP
Socket	DIP40
Architecture and classification
Technology node	6 µm
Instruction set	8080
History
Successor	Am8086
Support status
Unsupported

The Am9080 was a CPU manufactured by AMD. Originally produced without license as a clone of the Intel 8080, the processor was reverse-engineered by Ashawna Hailey, Kim Hailey and Jay Kumar. The Haileys photographed a pre-production sample Intel 8080 on their last day in Xerox, and developed a schematic and logic diagrams from the ~400 images. It was in the summer of 1973. They went to Silicon Valley to see if anyone was interested. AMD was interested since they had just developed a N-channel MOS process.¹ In initial production, the chips cost about 50 cents to make, yielding 100 chips per wafer, and were sold into the military market for $700 each. This CPU operated at a speed of 2 MHz. Later, an agreement was made with Intel to become a licensed second source for the 8080, enabling both manufacturers' chips to break into markets that would not accept a single-sourced part.

There are 13 variants in the Am9080 family, with clock period ranging from 250 ns to 480 ns.² They were also named 8080A.³

It was used in AMC 95/4000, result of a joint venture with Siemens.⁴