Microprocessors History

Presentation at the SKYPE conversation conference on 30^th July 2008

Everything begins in the 1970s:

1971 – Intel 4004, single 4-bit all-purpose chip, 108 kHz, 2 300 transistors

1972 – Intel 8008, more or less an 8-bit 4004

1974 – Intel 8080, the first truly usable microprocessor with a 16-bit address bus and an 8-bit data bus

1975 – the first multi-chip 16-bit microprocessor by either DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) or by Fairchild Semiconductor

1976 – Intel 8085, updated Intel 8080

1978 – Intel 8086, a 16-bit processor without floating-point instructions

1980 – Intel 8087, the first math co-processor

1981 – Intel 8088, the processor for the first IBM PC

1982 – the first processor, called the RISC-I with only 44 kB transistors, RISC was quickly adopted in the industry, and today remains the most popular architecture for processors

1986 – Intel 80386, first single-chip 32-bit microprocessor

1989 – Intel 80486, a 32-bit, 1.2 million transistors device with a maths coprocessor and memory management

1992 – the 32-bit (64-bit bus) PowerPC 601, a product of a joint venture between Motorola, IBM and Apple. It has 2.8 million transistors

1993 – Intel introduced the 3 million transistor, 32-bit, 64-bit bus, Pentium processor

Information sourses

Great moments in microprocessor history

and

Sandra I. Wooley – Microprocessor History

Prepared by G. Vitkova