My takeaway from this is that the author clearly documented the AL1 as the worlds first microprocessor. The arguments against are artificial; it doesn't matter that this wasn't the intended configuration nor that one essentially had to program it in microcode. The microcode ROM is nothing more than a compression technology which doesn't render it a more capable.
All that said, it's all arbitrary and the 4004 is the first _successful_ microprocessor. (I personally find it a more interesting question which alternative architectures could have been produced given the technology and constraints of the 4004 and 8080).
All that said, it's all arbitrary and the 4004 is the first _successful_ microprocessor. (I personally find it a more interesting question which alternative architectures could have been produced given the technology and constraints of the 4004 and 8080).