C3101A

The Intel 3101 is a 64-bit static random-access memory (SRAM), organized as 16 words of 4 bits and built in Schottky bipolar technology. The C3101A shown here is the faster A version, with an access time of 35 ns, in a 16-pin white ceramic dual in-line package under a gold lid marked 'i C3101A F8800'. Its fully decoded design needs no refresh: the stored bits hold for as long as power is applied.

Introduced in 1969, the 3101 was Intel's first product, shipped less than a year after the company was founded to make semiconductor memory. Its speed suited it to scratchpad and buffer memory in computers and specialized equipment. Its number follows Intel's early scheme, in which the first digit named the process: 3 for bipolar parts such as this one, 1 for the PMOS memories that followed, such as the 1103 and the 1702.