There are several story lines for the microcontroller/processor exhibit 1) The Tyrrany Of Numbers: as computers got more complex, there were incredible problems with how to handle so many components. Thousands of tubes for ENIAC and such would not scale up. SAGE required constant maintanance, thus the dual system to keep running. see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyranny_of_numbers That's happening again in a new way: pin count on the package. The 4004 was only 16 pins. 40 pins was common from the 70s to 80s with the 8008, 8080, 8086, 8088, Z80, 6502, 6800 and such. Easy for hobbyists to breadboard or hand-wire. The 68000 was 64 pins. CPUs expanded to 100. Now 1,000 or more with pin-grid array. 2) Moore's Law We're accustomed to speed and capacity doubling and redoubling and prices plummeting, thus the $5 Raspberry Pi Zero, dual/quad/octo-core processors in just about everything (desktop, laptop, even cellphones). 3) wider playing field Despite the "Intel Inside" campaign, the ARM core is in many more devices. Before the Intel/AMD duopoly, there was a wider playing field as demonstrated by all the hobbyist and pre-PC microsystems: Motorola's 6800, MOS's 6502, Zilog's Z80, RCA's 1802. There was quite the shake-out when the PC architecture "won". In a way, the maker/hacker community is aware of this thanks to the Arduio (most are Atmel AVR based), Raspberry Pi (cheap embedded Linux on the ARM core). That's another way to show how it's history repeating itself with the diversity of competing products. And how more innovation comes from people's basements & garages than large companies. The IoT (Internet of Things) is just a new face to microcontroller hackers. -- jeff jonas