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It was 40 years ago today when Intel introduced what it claims is the world's first commercially available microprocessor, the Intel 4004. That moment sparked the start of the digital revolution, Intel says, and the rest is history. Fast forward to today and microprocessors are all over the place, from smartphones to digital cameras, to media players and even refrigerators.
"The proliferation of microprocessors is due in large part to Intel’s relentless pursuit of Moore’s Law, a forecast for the pace of silicon technology development that states that roughly every 2 years transistor density of semiconductors will double, while increasing functionality and performance and decreasing costs," Intel said in a statement. "It has become the basic business model for the semiconductor industry for more than 40 years.
"For example, compared to the Intel 4004, today’s second-generation Intel® Core processors are more than 350,000 times the performance and each transistor uses about 5,000 times less energy. In this same time period, the price of a transistor has dropped by a factor of about 50,000."
Intel reiterated that future processors based on its next-generation 22nm manufacturing process will land in systems starting in 2012 and will be boast even greater energy-efficient performance as a direct result of Intel's breakthrough in 3D Tri-Gate transistors.
"The sheer number of advances in the next 40 years will equal or surpass all of the innovative activity that has taken place over the last 10,000 years of human history," said Justin Rattner, Intel chief technology officer.
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pastorbob
November 15, 2011 at 3:03pm
Then came the 8008 followed by the 8080, the one that set the main instruction set for the next several generations. What was interesting is that the 8080 was found in very few systems. Most used the Zilog Z-80 or the Motorola 6500 series.
