The Evolution of the Computer Processor
The evolution of the computer processor began with the understanding of the principles of electricity. Although there were ideas on how this technology could be implemented for much of the 1900s, it was not until the 1960s and early 1970s that scientists were able to put those ideas into practice.
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Intel 4004
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The Intel 4004 was released in 1971 and was the first stand-alone computer processor. It was a 4-bit chip and had 2,300 transistors. Both the Central Air Data Computer and the Texas Instruments TMS 1000 were created around this time, but neither were sold as an individual processor.
Intel 8088
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Intel released the 8088 chip in 1979. The 8088 was a 16-bit processor and contained 29,000 transistors. This was the chip that was chosen for the first IBM PC.
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Intel Pentium and AMD
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The Intel Pentium was released in 1993 as a 32-bit processor with 3.21 million transistors. Two years later Intel's competitor, AMD, released their AM5x86 chip which performed comparably to Pentium processors, but was able to be installed on older 486 boards.
Intel Pentium M
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The Intel Pentium M was released in 2003 and was designed specifically with mobile devices in mind. It integrated with the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 network and used less power to allow for longer battery life.
IBM POWER 7
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IBM's POWER7 was released in 2009 and contained 1.2 billion transistors on one large chip that contains between 4 and 8 cores.
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References
- Photo Credit computer chip image by Mograph from Fotolia.com
