The first mass-produced embedded system was the Autonetics D-17 guidance
computer for the Minuteman missile, released in 1961. It was built from discrete
transistor digital circuit logic and had a hard disk for main memory. When the
Minuteman II went into production in 1966, the D-17 was replaced with a new
computer that was the first high-volume use of integrated circuits. This program
alone reduced prices on quad nand gate ICs from $1000/each to $3/each,
permitting their use in commercial products