MPC 1600

The MPC 1600, or MPC1600, generally refers to a family of 16-bit microprocessors designed and manufactured by General Instrument (GI), later Microchip Technology, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These processors were notable for their bit-slice architecture. Rather than being a single integrated CPU, the MPC 1600 was constructed using a set of building blocks (typically the CP1600 ALU/register slice) allowing designers flexibility to configure the processor’s instruction set, word length, and architecture to specific application requirements.

The primary component of the MPC 1600 family was the CP1600 processor. This 40-pin chip provided the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), registers, and control logic necessary to execute instructions. The instruction set supported arithmetic, logical, and data transfer operations, enabling relatively complex processing tasks for its era.

Due to its bit-slice nature, the MPC 1600 family found applications in a range of products including industrial controllers, arcade games, and early personal computers. The flexibility inherent in its design allowed manufacturers to tailor the processor's capabilities to the specific needs of their products, providing a degree of customization not readily available with off-the-shelf microprocessors. While not as widely adopted as processors like the Intel 8080 or Zilog Z80, the MPC 1600 series occupied a significant niche in the embedded systems market during its operational lifespan.