The History of Micro Processors
A microprocessor is the part of a computer that does the actual "computing" -- in other words, processing information as opposed to storing or moving it. Since their inception in the 1970s, their development has followed "Moore's Law"; microprocessors have doubled in power roughly every two years. This is why computing technology has advanced so fast: from room-size calculating machines in the early 1970s to the cell phones, servers and PCs of today.
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Computing Before Microprocessors (Transistors and Integrated Circuits)
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The first computers used arrays of vacuum tubes to process data. These were unreliable, fragile and required constant maintenance. In 1956, the first transistor computer, the MV 950, was built by UK firm Manchester-Vickers. Transistors were smaller and far more reliable than vacuum tubes, and they're still the core component of modern microprocessors.
An integrated circuit is a single chip with many semiconductors on it. The first working one was built in 1958 by Texas Instruments engineer Jack Kilby, who in 2000 received the Nobel Prize for this. Integrated-circuit computers were both cheaper (because the chips could be printed as a single unit, as opposed to one transistor at a time), and more powerful (because the components are small and close together.)
First Types: The Early 1970s.
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An integrated circuit consisted of multiple transistors on a single chip. A microprocessor is, essentially, multiple integrated circuits on the same chip. The first of these appeared in 1971; Texas Instruments received a patent for a single-chip microprocessor in 1973.
In April 1974, Intel introduced the 8080, considered the first general-purpose microprocessor. In January 1975, the world's first personal computer, the MITS Altair 8800, was released, using the 8080 microprocessor.
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Moore's Law
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In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore said that he expected computer power to double every two years. This was based on the number of transistors that could be placed affordably on an integrated circuit; a more powerful chip is simply one that has more (i.e. smaller) transistors on it.
Moore's Law has held true since 1965, and is expected to keep going (as computing technology advances further and faster) until at least 2015.
The Rise of Personal Computing
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Through the 1980s, personal computers running on microprocessors became cheaper and more commonly available. Successful personal computers of the 1980s included the Commodore 64, the Apple Macintosh and the IBM PC.
Through the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, microprocessor development (and therefore computing power) followed Moore's Law: computers steadily and rapidly became more powerful.
Multi-core Processors
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In the early 1990s, chip-makers began using multiple, identical processors to handle the same data -- in other words, splitting the processing work between them. This was limited to high-end business machines until the 2000s.
In 2005, the first mass-market dual-core (two microprocessors on the same chip) processors were announced; in 2008 Intel released the first quad-core processor. Octo-core computers are now also on the market.
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