When was the first CPU developed?
Central processing unit
Since the introduction of the first commercially available microprocessor, the Intel 4004 in 1970, and the first widely used microprocessor, the Intel 8080 in 1974, this class of CPUs has almost completely overtaken all other central processing unit implementation methods. Mainframe and minicomputer manufacturers of the time launched proprietary IC development programs to upgrade their older computer architectures, and eventually produced instruction set compatible microprocessors that were backward-compatible with their older hardware and software. Combined with the advent and eventual success of the ubiquitous personal computer, the term "CPU" is now applied almost exclusively to microprocessors. Several CPUs (denoted "cores") can be combined in a single processing chip.
Previous generations of CPUs were implemented as discrete components and numerous small integrated circuits (ICs) on one or more circuit boards. Microprocessors, on the other hand, are CPUs manufactured on a very small number of ICs; usually just one. The overall smaller CPU size, as a result of being implemented on a single die, means faster switching time because of physical factors like decreased gate parasitic capacitance. This has allowed synchronous microprocessors to have clock rates ranging from tens of megahertz to several gigahertz. Additionally, the ability to construct exceedingly small transistors on an IC has increased the complexity and number of transistors in a single CPU many fold. This widely observed trend is described by Moore's law, which had proven to be a fairly accurate predictor of the growth of CPU (and other IC) complexity until 2016.
X86
At various times, companies such as IBM, NEC, AMD, TI, STM, Fujitsu, OKI, Siemens, Cyrix, Intersil, C&T, NexGen, UMC, and DM&P started to design or manufacture x86 processors (CPUs) intended for personal computers as well as embedded systems. Such x86 implementations are seldom simple copies but often employ different internal microarchitectures as well as different solutions at the electronic and physical levels. Quite naturally, early compatible microprocessors were 16-bit, while 32-bit designs were developed much later. For the personal computer market, real quantities started to appear around 1990 with i386 and i486 compatible processors, often named similarly to Intel's original chips. Other companies, which designed or manufactured x86 or x87 processors, include ITT Corporation, National Semiconductor, ULSI System Technology, and Weitek.
Athlon
The Athlon's CPU cache consisted of the typical two levels. Athlon was the first x86 processor with a 128 kB split level 1 cache; a 2-way associative cache separated into 2×64 kB for data and instructions (a concept from Harvard architecture). This cache was double the size of K6's already large 2×32 kB cache, and quadruple the size of Pentium II and III's 2×16 kB L1 cache. The initial Athlon (Slot A, later called Athlon Classic) used 512 kB of level 2 cache separate from the CPU, on the processor cartridge board, running at 50% to 33% of core speed. This was done because the 250 nm manufacturing process was too large to allow for on-die cache while maintaining cost-effective die size. Later Athlon CPUs, afforded greater transistor budgets by smaller 180 nm and 130 nm process nodes, moved to on-die L2 cache at full CPU clock speed.
74181
Prior to the introduction of the 74181, computer CPUs occupied multiple circuit boards and even very simple computers could fill multiple cabinets. The 74181 allowed an entire CPU and in some cases, an entire computer to be constructed on a single large printed circuit board. The 74181 occupies a historically significant stage between older CPUs based on discrete logic functions spread over multiple circuit boards and modern microprocessors that incorporate all CPU functions in a single component. The 74181 was used in various minicomputers and other devices beginning in the 1970s, but as microprocessors became more powerful the practice of building a CPU from discrete components fell out of favor and the 74181 was not used in any new designs.
History of general-purpose CPUs
The first commercial microprocessor, the binary coded decimal (BCD) based Intel 4004, was released by Busicom and Intel in 1971. In March 1972, Intel introduced a microprocessor with an 8-bit architecture, the 8008, an integrated pMOS logic re-implementation of the transistor–transistor logic (TTL) based Datapoint 2200 CPU. 4004 designers Federico and Masatoshi Shima went on to design its successor, the Intel 8080, released in 1974. The 8080 was the basis for the 8086, which is a direct ancestor to today's ubiquitous x86 family (including Pentium and Core i7). Every instruction of the 8080 has a direct equivalent in the large x86 instruction set, although the opcode values are different in the latter.
List of CPU power dissipation figures
Launched in 1995, the Pentium Pro was Intel's first processor meant for servers as well as their first processor to use the P6 microarchitecture. The processor used a dual-cavity package, in which one cavity contained the die and the other cavity contained the L2 Cache, as the Pentium Pro's L2 cache probably could not fit in the die. The Pentium Pro was substantially faster than the Pentium and Pentium MMX in 32-bit applications, but in 16-bit applications, it was slightly slower than the Pentium and Pentium MMX processors. This is because the Pentium Pro was optimized for 32-bit applications.
Intel part numbers
History of computing hardware
In the US, a series of computers at Control Data Corporation (CDC) were designed by Seymour Cray to use innovative designs and parallelism to achieve superior computational peak performance. The CDC 6600, released in 1964, is generally considered the first supercomputer. The CDC 6600 outperformed its predecessor, the IBM 7030 Stretch, by about a factor of 3. With performance of about 1 megaFLOPS, the CDC 6600 was the world's fastest computer from 1964 to 1969, when it relinquished that status to its successor, the CDC 7600.
POWER1
The POWER1 is a multi-chip CPU developed and fabricated by IBM that implemented the POWER instruction set architecture (ISA). It was originally known as the RISC System/6000 CPU or, when in an abbreviated form, the RS/6000 CPU, before introduction of successors required the original name to be replaced with one that used the same naming scheme (POWER"n") as its successors in order to differentiate it from the newer designs.
HP 2100
The HP 9810, 9820 and 9830 desktop computers used a slow, serialized TTL version of the 2116 CPU, although they did not ultimately use any of the operating system or application software, instead relying on user-friendly ROM-based interpreters such as BASIC which worked when powered up and integrated keyboards and displays rather than disks or standard terminals. In 1975, HP introduced the BPC, the world's first 16-bit microprocessor, using HP's NMOS-II process. The BPC was usually packaged in a ceramic hybrid module with the EMC and IOC chips, which added extended math and I/O instructions. The hybrid was developed as the heart of the new 9825 desktop computer. The later 9845 workstation added an MMU chip. These were the forerunners of personal computers and technical workstations.
HP Saturn
The Saturn family of 4-bit microprocessors was developed by Hewlett-Packard in the 1980s for programmable scientific calculators/microcomputers. It succeeded the "Nut" family of processors used in earlier calculators. The original Saturn chipset was first used in the HP-71B hand-held BASIC-programmable computer, introduced in 1984. Later models of the family powered the popular HP 48 series of calculators, among others. The HP 49 series initially used the Saturn CPU as well, until the NEC fab could no longer manufacture the processor for technical reasons in 2003. Therefore, starting with the HP 49g+ model in 2003, the calculators switched to use a Samsung S3C2410 processor with ARM920T core (part of the ARMv4T architecture) to run an emulator of the Saturn architecture in software. In 2000, the HP 39G and HP 40G were the last calculators introduced based on the Saturn hardware. The last calculators based on the Saturn emulator were the HP 39gs, HP 40gs and HP 50g in 2006, as well as the 2007 revision of the hp 48gII. The HP 50g, the last calculator utilizing this emulator, was discontinued in 2015 when Samsung stopped producing the ARM processor it was based on.
History of general-purpose CPUs
The first single-chip 16-bit microprocessor was introduced in 1975. Panafacom, a conglomerate formed by Japanese companies Fujitsu, Fuji Electric, and Matsushita, introduced the MN1610, a commercial 16-bit microprocessor. According to Fujitsu, it was "the world's first 16-bit microcomputer on a single chip".
1801 series CPU
The 1801 series CPUs were a family of 16-bit Soviet microprocessors based on the indigenous Elektronika NC microarchitecture cores, but binary compatible with DEC's PDP-11 machines. First released in 1980, various models and variants of the series were among the most popular Soviet microprocessors and dominated embedded systems and military applications of the 1980s. They were also used in widely different areas such as graphing calculators (Elektronika MK-85) and industrial CNCs (Elektronika NC series), but arguably their most well-known use was in several Soviet general-purpose mini- and microcomputer designs like the SM EVM, DVK, UKNC, and BK families. Due to being the CPU of the popular Elektronika BK home computer, used in its late years as a demo machine, as well as the DVK micros that often offered a first glimpse into the UNIX world, this processor achieved something of a cult status among Soviet and then Russian programmers.
Compaq
When Compaq introduced the first PC based on Intel's new 80386 microprocessor, the Compaq Deskpro 386, in 1986, it marked the first CPU change to the PC platform that was not initiated by IBM. An IBM-made 386 machine eventually reached the market seven months later, but by that time Compaq was the 386 supplier of choice and IBM had lost its image of technical leadership.
Zilog Z80
The Z80 CPU is an 8-bit based microprocessor. It was introduced by Zilog in 1976 as the startup company's first product. The Z80 was conceived by Federico Faggin in late 1974 and developed by him and his then-11 employees at Zilog from early 1975 until March 1976, when the first fully working samples were delivered. With the revenue from the Z80, the company built its own chip factories and grew to over a thousand employees over the following two years.
Intel
Intel's first products were shift register memory and random-access memory integrated circuits, and Intel grew to be a leader in the fiercely competitive DRAM, SRAM, and ROM markets throughout the 1970s. Concurrently, Intel engineers Marcian Hoff, Federico Faggin, Stanley Mazor and Masatoshi Shima invented Intel's first microprocessor. Originally developed for the Japanese company Busicom to replace a number of ASICs in a calculator already produced by Busicom, the Intel 4004 was introduced to the mass market on November 15, 1971, though the microprocessor did not become the core of Intel's business until the mid-1980s. (Note: Intel is usually given credit with Texas Instruments for the almost-simultaneous invention of the microprocessor)
History of personal computers
Chuck Peddle designed the "Commodore PET" (short for Personal Electronic Transactor) around his MOS 6502 processor. It was essentially a single-board computer with a simple TTL-based CRT driver circuit driving a small built-in monochrome monitor with 40×25 character graphics. The processor card, keyboard, monitor and cassette drive were all mounted in a single metal case. In 1982, "Byte" referred to the PET design as "the world's first personal computer".
Clock rate
The first commercial PC, the Altair 8800 (by MITS), used an Intel 8080 CPU with a clock rate of 2 MHz (2 million cycles per second). The original IBM PC (c. 1981) had a clock rate of 4.77 MHz (4,772,727 cycles per second).
In 1992, both Hewlett-Packard and Digital Equipment Corporation broke the difficult 100 MHz limit with RISC techniques in the PA-7100 and AXP 21064 DEC Alpha respectively. In 1995, Intel's P5 Pentium chip ran at 100 MHz (100 million cycles per second). On March 6, 2000, AMD reached the 1 GHz milestone a few months ahead of Intel. In 2002, an Intel Pentium 4 model was introduced as the first CPU with a clock rate of 3 GHz (three billion cycles per second corresponding to ~3.3×10seconds or 0.33 nanoseconds per cycle). Since then, the clock rate of production processors has increased much more slowly, with performance improvements coming from other design changes.
History of general-purpose CPUs
Busicom approached the American company Intel for manufacturing help in 1969. Intel, which was more of a memory company back then, had facilities to manufacture the high density silicon gate MOS chip Busicom required. Shima went to Intel in June 1969 to present his design proposal. Due to Intel lacking logic engineers to understand the logic schematics or circuit engineers to convert them, Intel asked Shima to simplify the logic. Intel wanted a single-chip CPU design, influenced by Sharp's Tadashi Sasaki who presented the concept to Busicom and Intel in 1968. The single-chip microprocessor design was then formulated by Intel's Marcian "Ted" Hoff in 1969, simplifying Shima's initial design down to four chips, including a single-chip CPU. Due to Hoff's formulation lacking key details, Shima came up with his own ideas to find solutions for its implementation. Shima was responsible for adding a 10-bit static shift register to make it useful as a printer's buffer and keyboard interface, many improvements in the instruction set, making the RAM organization suitable for a calculator, the memory address information transfer, the key program in an area of performance and program capacity, the functional specification, decimal computer idea, software, desktop calculator logic, real-time I/O control, and data exchange instruction between the accumulator and general purpose register. Hoff and Shima eventually realized the 4-bit microprocessor concept together, with the help of Intel's Stanley Mazor to interpret the ideas of Shima and Hoff. The specifications of the four chips were developed over a period of a few months in 1969, between an Intel team led by Hoff and a Busicom team led by Shima.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments invented the hand-held calculator (a prototype called "Cal Tech") in 1967 and the single-chip microcomputer in 1971, was assigned the first patent on a single-chip microprocessor (invented by Gary Boone) on September 4, 1973. This was disputed by Gilbert Hyatt, formerly of the Micro Computer Company, in August 1990 when he was awarded a patent superseding TI's. This was over-turned on June 19, 1996 in favor of TI (note: Intel is usually given credit with Texas Instruments for the almost-simultaneous invention of the microprocessor).
History of science and technology in Japan
In the early 1990s, engineers at Hitachi found ways to compress RISC instruction sets so they fit in even smaller memory systems than CISC instruction sets. They developed a compressed instruction set for their SuperH series of microprocessors, introduced in 1992. The SuperH instruction set was later adapted for the ARM architecture's Thumb instruction set. Compressed instructions appeared in the ARM architecture, after ARM Holdings licensed SuperH patents as a basis for its Thumb instruction set.While working for Intel in the 1970s, Masatoshi Shima designed a number of Intel peripheral chips. Some of his peripheral chips were used in the IBM PC, including the Intel 8259 interrupt controller, 8255 parallel port chip, 8253 timer chip, 8257 DMA chip, and 8251 serial communication USART chip.The first microcomputer was Sord Computer Corporation's SMP80/08. It was developed in 1972, using the 8-bit Intel 8008 microprocessor, which it was developed in tandem with.
NexGen
Its second design, the Nx586 CPU, was introduced in 1994, was the first CPU to attempt to compete directly against Intel's Pentium, with its Nx586-P80 and Nx586-P90 CPUs. Unlike competing chips from AMD and Cyrix, the Nx586 was not pin-compatible with the Pentium or any other Intel chip and required its own custom NxVL-based motherboard and chipset. NexGen offered both a VLB and a PCI motherboard for the Nx586 chips.
Athlon
The Slot-A Athlons were the first multiplier-locked CPUs from AMD. This was partly done to hinder CPU remarking being done by questionable resellers around the globe. AMD's older CPUs could simply be set to run at whatever clock speed the user chose on the motherboard, making it trivial to relabel a CPU and sell it as a faster grade than it was originally intended. These relabeled CPUs were not always stable, being overclocked and not tested properly, and this was damaging to AMD's reputation. Although the Athlon was multiplier locked, crafty enthusiasts eventually discovered that a connector on the PCB of the cartridge could control the multiplier. Eventually a product called the "Goldfingers device" was created by Ryan Petersen that could unlock the CPU, named after the gold connector pads on the processor board that it attached to.
POWER4
The POWER4 is a microprocessor developed by International Business Machines (IBM) that implemented the 64-bit PowerPC and PowerPC AS instruction set architectures. Released in 2001, the POWER4 succeeded the POWER3 and RS64 microprocessors, and was used in RS/6000 and AS/400 computers, ending a separate development of PowerPC microprocessors for the AS/400. The POWER4 was a multicore microprocessor, with two cores on a single die, the first non-embedded microprocessor to do so. POWER4 Chip was first commercially available multiprocessor chip. The original POWER4 had a clock speed of 1.1 and 1.3 GHz, while an enhanced version, the POWER4+, reached a clock speed of 1.9 GHz. The PowerPC 970 is a derivative of the POWER4.
Silicon Valley
In April 1974, Intel released the Intel 8080, a "computer on a chip", "the first truly usable microprocessor". A microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU) on a single integrated circuit (IC).
Federico Faggin
The Intel 8008 was the world's first single-chip 8-bit CPU and, like the 4004, was built with p-channel SGT. The 8008 development was originally assigned to Hal Feeney in March 1970 but was suspended until the 4004 was completed. It was resumed in January 1971 under Faggin's direction utilizing the basic circuits and methodology he had developed for the 4004, with Hal Feeney doing the chip design. The CPU architecture of the 8008 was originally created by CTC, Inc., to power the Datapoint 2200 intelligent terminal.
List of AMD accelerated processing unit microprocessors
This is a list of microprocessors designed by Advanced Micro Devices, under the AMD Accelerated Processing Unit product series.
As of May 1, 2013, AMD opened the doors of their "semi-custom" business unit. Since these chips are custom-made for specific customer needs, they vary widely from both consumer-grade APUs and even the other custom-built ones. Some notable examples of semi-custom chips that have come from this sector include the chips from the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. So far the size of the integrated GPU in these semi-custom APUs exceed by far the GPU size in the consumer-grade APUs.Note 1: The clock multiplier applies to the 200 MHz base clock. (AMD default clock base is 200 MHz)
Note 2: Unified shader processors (USPs): Texture mapping units (TMUs): Render output units (ROPs). 1 CU (Compute Unit) = 64 USPs: 4 TMUs : 1 ROPs
Note 3: Models enabled by Turbo Core technology, up to 10% clock speed increase is planned. With CPU boost, only one core of a dual-core model has boost enabled.
Note 4: K models feature an unlocked multiplier and overclockable GPU.
Note 5: One AMD module consists of two integer cores and two FPUs, which can be combined into one wide FPU for executing certain instructions, such as FMA. The two cores share certain resources, but are two separate units.
History of personal computers
In May 2005, AMD and Intel released their first dual-core 64-bit processors, the Pentium D and the Athlon 64 X2 respectively. Multi-core processors can be programmed and reasoned about using symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) techniques known since the 60s (see the SMP article for details).
Channel I/O
Much later, the channels were implemented as an on-board processor residing in the same box as the CPU, generally referred to as a "channel processor", and which was usually a RISC processor, but which could be a System/390 microprocessor with special microcode as in IBM's CMOS mainframes.
One of the earliest non-IBM channel systems was hosted in the CDC 6600 supercomputer in 1965. The CDC utilized 10 logically independent computers called peripheral processors, or PPs for this role. PPs were powerful, a modern version of CDC's first 'personal computer', the CDC 160A. The operating system resided and executed in the primary processor, PP0. Since then, channel controllers have been a standard part of most mainframe designs and a primary advantage mainframes have over smaller, faster, personal computers and network computing.
History of supercomputing
The 6600 gained speed by "farming out" work to peripheral computing elements, freeing the CPU (Central Processing Unit) to process actual data. The Minnesota FORTRAN compiler for the machine was developed by Liddiard and Mundstock at the University of Minnesota and with it the 6600 could sustain 500 kiloflops on standard mathematical operations. In 1968, Cray completed the CDC 7600, again the fastest computer in the world. At 36 MHz, the 7600 had about three and a half times the clock speed of the 6600, but ran significantly faster due to other technical innovations. They sold only about 50 of the 7600s, not quite a failure. Cray left CDC in 1972 to form his own company. Two years after his departure CDC delivered the STAR-100 which at 100 megaflops was three times the speed of the 7600. Along with the Texas Instruments ASC, the STAR-100 was one of the first machines to use vector processing - the idea having been inspired around 1964 by the APL programming language.
In 1956, a team at Manchester University in the United Kingdom, began development of MUSE — a name derived from microsecond engine — with the aim of eventually building a computer that could operate at processing speeds approaching one microsecond per instruction, about one million instructions per second. "Mu" (or "µ") is a prefix in the SI and other systems of units denoting a factor of 10 (one millionth).
Alpha 21064
The first Alpha processor was a test chip codenamed EV3. This test chip was fabricated using Digital's 1.0-micrometre (µm) CMOS-3 process. The test chip lacked a floating point unit and only had 1 KB caches. The test chip was used to confirm the operation of the aggressive circuit design techniques. The test chip, along with simulators and emulators, was also used to bring up firmware and the various operating systems that the company supported. The production chip, codenamed EV4, was fabricated using Digital's 0.75 µm CMOS-4 process. Dirk Meyer and Edward McLellan were the micro-architects. Ed designed the issue logic while Dirk designed the other major blocks. Jim Montanaro led the circuit implementation. The EV3 was used in the Alpha Development Unit (ADU), a computer used by Digital to develop software for the Alpha platform before the availability of EV4 parts.
Graphics processing unit
The term GPU has been used from at least the 1980s, it was popularized by Nvidia in 1999, who marketed the GeForce 256 as "the world's first GPU". It was presented as a "single-chip processor with integrated transform, lighting, triangle setup/clipping, and rendering engines". Rival ATI Technologies coined the term "visual processing unit" or VPU with the release of the Radeon 9700 in 2002.
History of general-purpose CPUs
NEC released the μPD707 and μPD708, a two-chip 4-bit CPU, in 1971. They were followed by NEC's first single-chip microprocessor, the μPD700, in April 1972. It was a prototype for the μCOM-4 (μPD751), released in April 1973, combining the μPD707 and μPD708 into a single microprocessor. In 1973, Toshiba released the TLCS-12, the first 12-bit microprocessor.
AIM alliance
The CPUs are the PowerPC processors, the first of which, the PowerPC 601, is a single-chip version of IBM's POWER1 CPU. Both IBM and Motorola would manufacture PowerPC integrated circuits for this new platform. The computer architecture base was called "PReP" (PowerPC Reference Platform), and later complemented with OpenFirmware and renamed "CHRP" (Common Hardware Reference Platform). IBM used PReP and CHRP for PCI version of IBM's RS/6000 platform, from existing Micro Channel architecture models, and changed only to support the new 60x bus style of the PowerPC.
Chipset
In computing, the term "chipset" commonly refers to a set of specialized chips on a computer's motherboard or an expansion card. In personal computers, the first chipset for the IBM PC AT of 1984 was the NEAT chipset developed by Chips and Technologies for the Intel 80286 CPU.
Integrated circuit
Fairchild Semiconductor was also home of the first silicon-gate IC technology with self-aligned gates, the basis of all modern CMOS integrated circuits. The technology was developed by Italian physicist Federico Faggin in 1968. In 1970, he joined Intel in order to develop the first single-chip central processing unit (CPU) microprocessor, the Intel 4004, for which he received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2010. The 4004 was designed by Busicom's Masatoshi Shima and Intel's Ted Hoff in 1969, but it was Faggin's improved design in 1970 that made it a reality.
AMD Am2900
Am2900 is a family of integrated circuits (ICs) created in 1975 by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). They were constructed with bipolar devices, in a bit-slice topology, and were designed to be used as modular components each representing a different aspect of a computer control unit (CCU). By using the bit slicing technique, Am2900 family was able to implement a CCU with data, addresses, and instructions to be any multiple of 4 bits by multiplying the number of ICs. One major problem with this modular technique was that it required a larger number of ICs to implement what could be done on a single CPU IC. The Am2901 chip was the arithmetic-logic unit (ALU), and the "core" of the series. It could count using 4 bits and implement binary operations as well as various bit-shifting operations.
Celeron
Launched in April 1998, the first "Covington" Celeron was essentially a 266 MHz Pentium II manufactured without any secondary cache at all. Covington also shared the 80523 product code of Deschutes. Although clocked at 266 or 300 MHz (frequencies 33 or 66 MHz higher than the desktop version of the Pentium w/MMX), the cacheless Celerons had trouble outcompeting the parts they were designed to replace. Substantial numbers were sold on first release, largely on the strength of the Intel name, but the Celeron quickly achieved a poor reputation both in the trade press and among computer professionals. The initial market interest faded rapidly in the face of its poor performance and with sales at a very low level, Intel felt obliged to develop a substantially faster replacement as soon as possible. Nevertheless, the first Celerons were quite popular among some overclockers, for their flexible overclockability and reasonable price. Covington was only manufactured in Slot 1 SEPP format.
IBM PC compatible
Companies such as AMD and Cyrix developed alternative CPUs that were functionally compatible with Intel's. Towards the end of the 1990s, AMD was taking an increasing share of the CPU market for PCs. AMD even ended up playing a significant role in directing the development of the x86 platform when its Athlon line of processors continued to develop the classic x86 architecture as Intel deviated with its Netburst architecture for the Pentium 4 CPUs and the IA-64 architecture for the Itanium set of server CPUs. AMD developed AMD64, the first major extension not created by Intel, which Intel later adopted as x86-64. During 2006 Intel began abandoning Netburst with the release of their set of "Core" processors that represented a development of the earlier Pentium III.
Intel 80486DX2
The Intel i486DX2, rumored as 80486DX2 (later renamed IntelDX2) is a CPU produced by Intel that was introduced in 1992. The i486DX2 was nearly identical to the i486DX, but it had additional clock multiplier circuitry. It was the first chip to use clock doubling, whereby the processor runs two internal logic clock cycles per external bus cycle. An i486 DX2 was thus significantly faster than an i486 DX at the same bus speed thanks to the 8K on-chip cache shadowing the slower clocked external bus.
Influence of the IBM PC on the personal computer market
Around 1978, several 16-bit CPUs became available. Examples included the Data General mN601, Fairchild's 9440, the Ferranti F100-1, the General Instrument CP1600 and CP1610, the National Semiconductor INS8900, Panafacom's MN1610, Texas Instruments' TMS9900, and, most notably, the Intel 8086. These new processors were expensive to incorporate in personal computers, as they used a 16-bit data bus and needed rare (and thus expensive) 16-bit peripheral and support chips.
Pentium Pro
The Pentium Pro is a sixth-generation x86 microprocessor developed and manufactured by Intel introduced in November 1, 1995. It introduced the P6 microarchitecture (sometimes referred to as i686) and was originally intended to replace the original Pentium in a full range of applications. While the Pentium and Pentium MMX had 3.1 and 4.5 million transistors, respectively, the Pentium Pro contained 5.5 million transistors. Later, it was reduced to a more narrow role as a server and high-end desktop processor and was used in supercomputers like ASCI Red, the first computer to reach the teraFLOPS performance mark. The Pentium Pro was capable of both dual- and quad-processor configurations. It only came in one form factor, the relatively large rectangular Socket 8. The Pentium Pro was succeeded by the Pentium II Xeon in 1998.
Thermal Head
The Thermal Head is a component of a metrological device created to aid in development of new CPUs and chipsets. The first Thermal Head was constructed in 1996 by James Kerner. It was initially designed to control a slot 1 Intel processor's temperature while making computations in a test platform. A Thermal Head attached to a CPU may also increase a CPU's performance during computation. Today it is used for test/validation of a processor in conjunction with a Thermal Management System consisting of a temperature controller attached to the Thermal Head by way of an electrical umbilical.
Conroe (microprocessor)
The first Intel Core 2 Duo branded processor cores, code-named Conroe, were launched on July 27, 2006, at Fragapalooza, a yearly gaming event in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. These processors were fabricated on 300 mm wafers using a 65 nm manufacturing process, and intended for desktop computers, as a replacement for the Pentium 4 and Pentium D branded CPUs. Intel has claimed that Conroe provides 40% more performance at 40% less power compared to the Pentium D; the E6300, lowest end of the initial Conroe lineup, is able to match or even exceed the former flagship Pentium Extreme Edition 965 in performance despite a massive 50% clock frequency deficit. All Conroe processors are manufactured with 4 MB L2 cache; however, due to manufacturing defects or possibly for marketing purposes, the E6300 and E6400 versions based on this core have half their cache disabled, leaving them with only 2 MB of usable L2 cache. These Conroe-based E6300 and E6400 CPUs have the B2 stepping.
History of electrical engineering
The invention of the transistor in 1947 by William B. Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain opened the door for more compact devices and led to the development of the integrated circuit in 1958 by Jack Kilby and independently in 1959 by Robert Noyce. In the mid to late 1950s, the term radio engineering gradually gave way to the name electronics engineering, which then became a stand-alone university degree subject, usually taught alongside electrical engineering with which it had become associated due to some similarities. In 1968 Marcian Hoff invented the first microprocessor at Intel and thus ignited the development of the personal computer. The first realization of the microprocessor was the Intel 4004, a 4-bit processor developed in 1971, but only in 1973 did the Intel 8080, an 8-bit processor, make the building of the first personal computer, the Altair 8800, possible.
Celeron
Introduced in April 1998, the first Celeron branded CPU was based on the Pentium II. Subsequent Celeron branded CPUs were based on the Pentium III, Pentium 4, Pentium M, and Intel Core. The latest Celeron design () is based on the seventh generation Core i3/i5/i7 series (Kaby Lake). This design features independent processing cores (CPUs), but with only 66% as much cache memory as the comparable Core i3 offering.
Microprocessor
The Intel 4004 is generally regarded as the first commercially available microprocessor, and cost . The first known advertisement for the 4004 is dated November 15, 1971 and appeared in "Electronic News". The microprocessor was designed by a team consisting of Italian engineer Federico Faggin, American engineers Marcian Hoff and Stanley Mazor, and Japanese engineer Masatoshi Shima.
History of general-purpose CPUs
In the mid-to-late 1980s, designers began using a technique termed "instruction pipelining", in which the processor works on multiple instructions in different stages of completion. For example, the processor can retrieve the operands for the next instruction while calculating the result of the current one. Modern CPUs may use over a dozen such stages. (Pipelining was originally developed in the late 1950s by International Business Machines (IBM) on their 7030 (Stretch) mainframe computer.) Minimal instruction set computers (MISC) can execute instructions in one cycle with no need for pipelining.
History of computing hardware
In April 1975 at the Hannover Fair, Olivetti presented the P6060, the world's first complete, pre-assembled personal computer system. The central processing unit consisted of two cards, code named PUCE1 and PUCE2, and unlike most other personal computers was built with TTL components rather than a microprocessor. It had one or two 8" floppy disk drives, a 32-character plasma display, 80-column graphical thermal printer, 48 Kbytes of RAM, and BASIC language. It weighed . As a complete system, this was a significant step from the Altair, though it never achieved the same success. It was in competition with a similar product by IBM that had an external floppy disk drive.
Pentium
Following Intel's prior series of 8086, 80186, 80286, 80386, and 80486 microprocessors, the firm's first P5-based microprocessor was released as the original Intel Pentium on March 22, 1993. Marketing firm Lexicon Branding was hired to coin a name for the new processor. The suffix "-ium" was chosen as it could connote a fundamental ingredient of a computer, like a chemical element, while the prefix "pent-" could refer to the fifth generation of x86.
History of general-purpose CPUs
The design freedom of the time was very important, for designers were very constrained by the cost of electronics, and only starting to explore how a computer could best be organized. Some of the basic features introduced during this period included index registers (on the Ferranti Mark 1), a return address saving instruction (UNIVAC I), immediate operands (IBM 704), and detecting invalid operations (IBM 650).
Intel 4004
The first public mention of 4004 was an advertisement in the November 15, 1971, edition of "Electronic News". The first delivery was to Busicom for their engineering prototype calculator in March 1971, followed by their 141-PF prototype calculator commercially available in the market in July 1971. Packaged in a 16-pin ceramic dual in-line package, the 4004 was the first commercially available computer processor designed and manufactured by chip maker Intel, which had previously made semiconductor memory chips. The chief designers of the chip were Federico Faggin, the leader of the project after the architectural definition was finalized with Busicom, who created the design methodology and the silicon-based chip design; Ted Hoff who formulated the architecture, both of Intel, and Masatoshi Shima of Busicom who assisted in the development.
1801 series CPU
The history of this CPU stems from the early 1970s, when the group of engineers in Zelenograd's Special Computing Center, led by D.I. Yuditsky, developed their first 16-bit minicomputer, called Elektronika NC-1. This machine, intended to directly compete with SM EVM series, was first released in 1973 and used the bit slice 4-bit 587 CPU, sometimes called the first Soviet microprocessor ever. Its descendants proved popular and were widely used in various control systems and telecom equipment. However, the bit-slice nature of their CPUs made these machines somewhat unwieldy, especially in military applications, and the need for a single-chip microprocessor was identified.
History of computing hardware (1960s–present)
The powerful supercomputers of the era were at the other end of the computing spectrum from the microcomputers, and they also used integrated circuit technology. In 1976, the Cray-1 was developed by Seymour Cray, who had left Control Data in 1972 to form his own company. This machine was the first supercomputer to make vector processing practical. It had a characteristic horseshoe shape to speed processing by shortening circuit paths. Vector processing uses one instruction to perform the same operation on many arguments; it has been a fundamental supercomputer processing method ever since. The Cray-1 could calculate 150 million floating point operations per second (150 megaflops). 85 were shipped at a price of $5 million each. The Cray-1 had a CPU that was mostly constructed of SSI and MSI ECL ICs.
Central processing unit
Early computers such as the ENIAC had to be physically rewired to perform different tasks, which caused these machines to be called "fixed-program computers". Since the term "CPU" is generally defined as a device for software (computer program) execution, the earliest devices that could rightly be called CPUs came with the advent of the stored-program computer.
History of computing hardware
While which specific system is considered the first microcomputer is a matter of debate, as there were several unique hobbyist systems developed based on the Intel 4004 and its successor, the Intel 8008, the first commercially available microcomputer kit was the Intel 8080-based Altair 8800, which was announced in the January 1975 cover article of "Popular Electronics". However, this was an extremely limited system in its initial stages, having only 256 bytes of DRAM in its initial package and no input-output except its toggle switches and LED register display. Despite this, it was initially surprisingly popular, with several hundred sales in the first year, and demand rapidly outstripped supply. Several early third-party vendors such as Cromemco and Processor Technology soon began supplying additional S-100 bus hardware for the Altair 8800.
History of computing hardware
While the subject of exactly which device was the first microprocessor is contentious, partly due to lack of agreement on the exact definition of the term "microprocessor", it is largely undisputed that the first single-chip microprocessor was the Intel 4004, designed and realized by Ted Hoff, Federico Faggin, and Stanley Mazor at Intel. It should be noted that Tadashi Sasaki and Masatoshi Shima of Busicom, a calculator manufacturer, had the initial insight that the CPU be a 4-bit integrated circuit, and that Intel could supply the ICs.
While the earliest microprocessor ICs literally contained only the processor, i.e. the central processing unit, of a computer, their progressive development naturally led to chips containing most or all of the internal electronic parts of a computer. The integrated circuit in the image on the right, for example, an Intel 8742, is an 8-bit microcontroller that includes a CPU running at 12 MHz, 128 bytes of RAM, 2048 bytes of EPROM, and I/O in the same chip.
History of general-purpose CPUs
Early experimental work has been done on using ion based chemical reactions instead of electronic or photonic actions to implement elements of a logic processor.
Intel
Intel introduced the 486 microprocessor in 1989, and in 1990 established a second design team, designing the processors code-named "P5" and "P6" in parallel and committing to a major new processor every two years, versus the four or more years such designs had previously taken. Engineers Vinod Dham and Rajeev Chandrasekhar (Member of Parliament, India) were key figures on the core team that invented the 486 chip and later, Intel's signature Pentium chip. The P5 project was earlier known as "Operation Bicycle," referring to the cycles of the processor through two parallel execution pipelines. The P5 was introduced in 1993 as the Intel Pentium, substituting a registered trademark name for the former part number (numbers, such as 486, cannot be legally registered as trademarks in the United States). The P6 followed in 1995 as the Pentium Pro and improved into the Pentium II in 1997. New architectures were developed alternately in Santa Clara, California and Hillsboro, Oregon.
History of computing
The microprocessor was introduced with the Intel 4004. It began with the "Busicom Project" as Masatoshi Shima's three-chip CPU design in 1968, before Sharp's Tadashi Sasaki conceived of a single-chip CPU design, which he discussed with Busicom and Intel in 1968. The Intel 4004 was then developed as a single-chip microprocessor from 1969 to 1970, led by Intel's Marcian Hoff and Federico Faggin and Busicom's Masatoshi Shima. The microprocessor led to the development of microcomputers, and the microcomputer revolution.
Convex Computer
Convex was formed in 1982 by Bob Paluck and Steve Wallach in Richardson, Texas. It was originally named Parsec and early prototype and production boards bear that name. They planned on producing a machine very similar in architecture to the Cray Research vector processor machines, with a somewhat lower performance, but with a much better price/performance ratio. In order to lower costs, the Convex designs were not as technologically aggressive as Cray's, and were based on more mainstream chip technology, attempting to make up for the loss in performance in other ways.
Their first machine was the C1, released in 1985. The C1 was very similar to the Cray-1 in general design, but its CPU and main memory was implemented with slower but less expensive CMOS technology. They offset this by increasing the capabilities of the vector units, including doubling the vector registers' length to 128 64-bit elements each. It also used virtual memory as opposed to the static memory system of the Cray machines, which improved programming. It was generally rated at 20 MFLOPS peak for double precision (64-bit), and 40 MFLOPS peak for single precision (32-bit), about one fifth the normal speed of the Cray-1. They also invested heavily in advanced automatic vectorizing compilers in order to gain performance when existing programs were ported to their systems. The machines ran a BSD version of Unix known initially as Convex Unix then later as ConvexOS due to trademark and licensing issues. ConvexOS has DEC VMS compatibility features as well as Cray Fortran features. Their Fortran compiler went on to be licensed to other computers such as Ardent Computer and Stellar (and merged Stardent).
The C2 was a crossbar-interconnected multiprocessor version of the C1, with up to four CPUs, released in 1988. It used newer 20,000-gate CMOS and 10,000-gate emitter-coupled logic (ECL) gate arrays for a boost in clock speed from 10 MHz to 25 MHz, and rated at 50 MFLOPS peak for double precision per CPU (100 MFLOPS peak for single precision). It was Convex's most successful product.
CPUID
The codice_1 instruction (identified by a codice_1 opcode) is a processor supplementary instruction (its name derived from CPU IDentification) for the x86 architecture allowing software to discover details of the processor. It was introduced by Intel in 1993 when it introduced the Pentium and SL-enhanced 486 processors.
Cellular neural network
The first algorithmically programmable, analog CNN processor was created in 1993. It was named the CNN Universal Processor because its internal controller allowed multiple templates to be performed on the same data set, thus simulating multiple layers and allowing for universal computation. Included in the design was a single layer 8x8 CCN, interfaces, analog memory, switching logic, and software. The processor was developed in order to determine CNN processor producibility and utility. The CNN concept proved promising and by 2000, there were at least six organizations designing algorithmically programmable, analog CNN processors. This is when AnaFocus, a mixed-signal semiconductor company that emerged from research at The University of Seville, introduced their ACE prototype CNN processor product line. Their first ACE processor contained 20x20 B/W processor units; their next ACE processor provided 48x48 grayscale processor units, and their latest ACE processor contains 128x128 grayscale processor units. Over time, not only did the number of processing elements increase, but their speed improved, the number of functions they can perform increased, and a seamless detector interface was integrated into the silicon (yielding considerably improved interface). The ability to embed the detector interface into the CNN processor allows for real-time interaction between the sensing and processing. AnaFocus has a multilayer CASE prototype CNN processors line. The latest CASE processor is a three layer 32x32 CNN processor. Their work in CNN processors is currently culminating in their soon-to-be-released, commercially available Eye-RIS product line that consists of all the processors, co-processors, software development kits, and support needed to program and integrate an analog processor into a system.
Single-chip Cloud Computer
The Single-Chip Cloud Computer (SCC) is a computer processor (CPU) created by Intel Corporation in 2009 that has 48 distinct physical cores that communicate through architecture similar to that of a cloud computer data center. Cores are a part of the processor that carry out instructions of code that allow the computer to run. The SCC was a product of a project started by Intel to research multi-core processors and parallel processing (doing multiple calculations at once). Additionally Intel wanted to experiment with incorporating the designs and architecture of huge cloud computer data centers (Cloud computing) into a single processing chip. They took the aspect of cloud computing in which there are many remote servers that communicate with each other and applied it to a microprocessor. It was a new concept that Intel wanted to experiment with. The name "Single-chip Cloud Computer" originated from this concept.
Megahertz myth
The x86 CISC based CPU architecture which Intel introduced in 1978 was used as the standard for the DOS based IBM PC, and developments of it still continue to dominate the Microsoft Windows market. An IBM RISC based architecture was used for the PowerPC CPU which was released in 1992. In 1994 Apple Computer introduced Macintosh computers using these PowerPC CPUs. Initially this architecture met hopes for performance, and different ranges of PowerPC CPUs were developed, often delivering different performances at the same clock rate. Similarly, at this time the Intel 80486 was selling alongside the Pentium which delivered almost twice the performance of the 80486 at the same clock rate.
Simultaneous multithreading
While multithreading CPUs have been around since the 1950s, simultaneous multithreading was first researched by IBM in 1968 as part of the ACS-360 project. The first major commercial microprocessor developed with SMT was the Alpha 21464 (EV8). This microprocessor was developed by DEC in coordination with Dean Tullsen of the University of California, San Diego, and Susan Eggers and Henry Levy of the University of Washington. The microprocessor was never released, since the Alpha line of microprocessors was discontinued shortly before HP acquired Compaq which had in turn acquired DEC. Dean Tullsen's work was also used to develop the Hyper-threading (Hyper-threading technology or HTT) versions of the Intel Pentium 4 microprocessors, such as the "Northwood" and "Prescott".
Central processing unit
Early CPUs were custom designs used as part of a larger and sometimes distinctive computer. However, this method of designing custom CPUs for a particular application has largely given way to the development of multi-purpose processors produced in large quantities. This standardization began in the era of discrete transistor mainframes and minicomputers and has rapidly accelerated with the popularization of the integrated circuit (IC). The IC has allowed increasingly complex CPUs to be designed and manufactured to tolerances on the order of nanometers. Both the miniaturization and standardization of CPUs have increased the presence of digital devices in modern life far beyond the limited application of dedicated computing machines. Modern microprocessors appear in electronic devices ranging from automobiles to cellphones, and sometimes even in toys.
Electrical engineering
The microprocessor was introduced with the Intel 4004. It began with the "Busicom Project" as Masatoshi Shima's three-chip CPU design in 1968, before Sharp's Tadashi Sasaki conceived of a single-chip CPU design, which he discussed with Busicom and Intel in 1968. The Intel 4004 was then developed as a single-chip microprocessor from 1969 to 1970, led by Intel's Marcian Hoff and Federico Faggin and Busicom's Masatoshi Shima. The microprocessor led to the development of microcomputers and personal computers, and the microcomputer revolution.
Micral
The Computer History Museum currently says that the Micral is one of the earliest commercial, non-kit personal computers. The 1971 Kenbak-1, invented before the first microprocessor, is considered to be the world's first "personal computer". That machine didn't have a one-chip CPU but instead was based purely on small-scale integration TTL chips.
Christopher Curry
Curry and Hauser had become increasingly interested in the idea of selling their own computers and so, on 5 December 1978, they set up Cambridge Processor Unit Ltd (CPU). Their first customer was Ace Coin Equipment Ltd, who needed controllers for their fruit machines.
PowerPC 400
Introduced in 1994, the PowerPC 403 was one of the first PowerPC processors. It was the first one targeted strictly to the embedded market. Compared to the other PowerPC processors of the era (PowerPC 601, PowerPC 603 and PowerPC 604), it was at the very low end, lacking a memory management unit (MMU) or floating point unit (FPU), for instance. The core was offered for custom chips and in pre packaged versions, including versions with MMU, speeds ranging from 20 to 80 MHz.
AMD Accelerated Processing Unit
AMD APUs have a unique architecture: they have AMD CPU modules, cache, and a discrete-class graphics processor, all on the same die using the same bus. This architecture allows for the use of graphics accelerators, such as OpenCL, with the integrated graphics processor. The goal is to create a "fully integrated" APU, which, according to AMD, will eventually feature 'heterogeneous cores' capable of processing both CPU and GPU work automatically, depending on the workload requirement.The first generation APU, released in June 2011, was used in both desktops and laptops. It was based on the K10 architecture and built on a 32 nm process featuring two to four CPU cores on a thermal design power (TDP) of 65-100 W, and integrated graphics based on the Radeon HD6000 Series with support for DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.2 and OpenCL 1.2. In performance comparisons against the similarly priced Intel Core i3-2105, the Llano APU was criticised for its poor CPU performance and praised for its better GPU performance. AMD was later criticised for abandoning Socket FM1 after one generation.
History of science and technology in Japan
The first commercial microprocessor, the 4-bit Intel 4004, began with the "Busicom Project" in 1968 as Masatoshi Shima's three-chip CPU design for the Busicom 141-PF calculator. In April 1968, Shima was tasked with designing a special-purpose LSI chipset, along with his supervisor Tadashi Tanba, for use in the Busicom 141-PF desktop calculator. This later became known as the "Busicom Project". His initial design consisted of seven LSI chips, including a three-chip CPU. His design included arithmetic units (adders), multiplier units, registers, read-only memory, and a macro-instruction set to control a decimal computer system. Busicom then wanted a general-purpose LSI chipset, for not only desktop calculators, but also other equipment such as a teller machine, cash register and billing machine. Shima thus began work on a general-purpose LSI chipset in late 1968.
CPU (disambiguation)
CPU is a computer's central processing unit.
Datapoint 2200
The original design called for a single-chip 8-bit microprocessor for the CPU, rather than a processor built from discrete TTL modules as was conventional at the time. In 1969, CTC contracted two companies, Intel and Texas Instruments, to make the chip. TI was unable to make a reliable part and dropped out. Intel was unable to make CTC's deadline. Intel and CTC renegotiated their contract, ending up with CTC keeping its money and Intel keeping the eventually completed processor.
HP Saturn
The CPU codenames are inspired by members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1806, the first United States overland expedition to the Pacific coast and back.
Central processing unit
For several decades from the 1970s to early 2000s, the focus in designing high performance general purpose CPUs was largely on achieving high ILP through technologies such as pipelining, caches, superscalar execution, out-of-order execution, etc. This trend culminated in large, power-hungry CPUs such as the Intel Pentium 4. By the early 2000s, CPU designers were thwarted from achieving higher performance from ILP techniques due to the growing disparity between CPU operating frequencies and main memory operating frequencies as well as escalating CPU power dissipation owing to more esoteric ILP techniques.
History of general-purpose CPUs
By the end of the 1950s, commercial builders had developed factory-constructed, truck-deliverable computers. The most widely installed computer was the IBM 650, which used drum memory onto which programs were loaded using either paper punched tape or punched cards. Some very high-end machines also included core memory which provided higher speeds. Hard disks were also starting to grow popular.
PIC microcontrollers
The original PIC was intended to be used with General Instrument's new CP1600 16-bit central processing unit (CPU). Whilst most people considered the CP1600 a good CPU, it had poor I/O performance, and the 8-bit PIC was developed in 1975 to improve performance of the overall system by offloading I/O tasks from the CPU.
History of personal computers
Released in June 1970, the programmable terminal called the Datapoint 2200 is the earliest known device that bears some significant resemblance to the modern personal computer, with a screen, keyboard, and program storage. It was made by CTC (now known as Datapoint) and was a complete system in a small case bearing the approximate footprint of an IBM Selectric typewriter. The system's CPU was constructed from a variety of discrete components, although the company had commissioned Intel to develop a single-chip processing unit; there was a falling out between CTC and Intel, and the chip Intel had developed wasn't used. Intel soon released a modified version of that chip as the Intel 8008, the world's first 8-bit microprocessor. The needs and requirements of the Datapoint 2200 therefore determined the nature of the 8008, upon which all successive processors used in IBM-compatible PCs were based. Additionally, the design of the Datapoint 2200's multi-chip CPU and the final design of the Intel 8008 were so similar that the two are largely software-compatible; therefore, the Datapoint 2200, from a practical perspective, functioned as if it were indeed powered by an 8008, making it a "de facto" microcomputer.
Non-uniform memory access
Modern CPUs operate considerably faster than the main memory they use. In the early days of computing and data processing, the CPU generally ran slower than its own memory. The performance lines of processors and memory crossed in the 1960s with the advent of the first supercomputers. Since then, CPUs increasingly have found themselves "starved for data" and having to stall while waiting for data to arrive from memory. Many supercomputer designs of the 1980s and 1990s focused on providing high-speed memory access as opposed to faster processors, allowing the computers to work on large data sets at speeds other systems could not approach.
P5 (microarchitecture)
After the introduction of the Pentium, competitors such as Nexgen, AMD, Cyrix, and Texas Instruments announced Pentium-compatible processors in 1994. "CIO magazine" identified NexGen's Nx586 as the first Pentium-compatible CPU, while "PC Magazine" described the Cyrix 6x86 as the first. These were followed by the AMD K5, which was delayed due to design difficulties. AMD later bought NexGen in order to help design the AMD K6, and Cyrix was purchased by National Semiconductor. Later processors from AMD and Intel retain compatibility with the original Pentium.These Manuals do provide an overview of the Pentium Processor and its features:
Central processing unit
The design complexity of CPUs increased as various technologies facilitated building smaller and more reliable electronic devices. The first such improvement came with the advent of the transistor. Transistorized CPUs during the 1950s and 1960s no longer had to be built out of bulky, unreliable and fragile switching elements like vacuum tubes and relays. With this improvement more complex and reliable CPUs were built onto one or several printed circuit boards containing discrete (individual) components.
History of general-purpose CPUs
Intel soon developed a slightly more mini computer-like microprocessor, the 8080, largely based on customer feedback on the limited 8008. Much like the 8008, it was used for applications such as terminals, printers, cash registers and industrial robots. However, the more able 8080 also became the original target CPU for an early de facto standard personal computer operating system called CP/M and was used for such demanding control tasks as cruise missiles, and many other uses. The 8080 became one of the first really widespread microprocessors.
International Collegiate Programming Contest
The ICPC traces its roots to a competition held at Texas A&M University in 1970 hosted by the Alpha Chapter of the Upsilon Pi Epsilon Computer Science Honor Society (UPE). This initial programming competition was titled First Annual Texas Collegiate Programming Championship and each University was represented by a team of up to five members. The computer used was a 360 model 65 which was one of the first machines with a DAT (Dynamic Address Translator aka "paging") system for accessing memory. The start of the competition was delayed for about 90 minutes because two of the four "memory bank" amplifiers were down. Teams that participated included, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, University of Houston, and five or six other Texas University / Colleges. There were three problems that had to be completed and the cumulative time from "start" to "successful completion" determined first-, second-, and third-place winners. The programming language used was Fortran. The programs were written on coding sheets, keypunched on Hollerith cards, and submitted for execution. The University of Houston team won the competition completing all three problems successfully with time. The second- and third-place teams did not successfully complete all three three problems. The contest evolved into its present form as a multi-tier competition in 1977, with the first finals held in conjunction with the ACM Computer Science Conference.
Tensor processing unit
The first-generation TPU is an 8-bit matrix multiplication engine, driven with CISC instructions by the host processor across a PCIe 3.0 bus. It is manufactured on a 28 nm process with a die size ≤ 331 mm. The clock speed is 700 MHz and it has a thermal design power of 28-40 W. It has 28 MiB of on chip memory, and 4 MiB of 32-bit accumulators taking the results of a 256x256 systolic array of 8-bit multipliers. Within the TPU package is 8 GiB of dual-channel 2133 MHz DDR3 SDRAM offering 34 GB/s of bandwidth. Instructions transfer data to or from the host, perform matrix multiplications or convolutions, and apply activation functions.
History of personal computers
In 2005, the ARM Cortex-A8 is released, the first Cortex design to be adopted on a large scale for use in consumer devices. An ARM core is later used in the Raspberry Pi, a very cheap minicomputer.
Intel 8086
The 8086 (also called iAPX 86 ) is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and June 8, 1978, when it was released. The Intel 8088, released July 1, 1979, is a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allowing the use of cheaper and fewer supporting ICs), and is notable as the processor used in the original IBM PC design, including the widespread version called IBM PC XT.
History of general-purpose CPUs
It became possible to put an entire CPU on one printed circuit board. The result was that minicomputers, usually with 16-bit words, and 4K to 64K of memory, became common.
Processor design
As of 2009, more CPUs are produced using the ARM architecture instruction set than any other 32-bit instruction set.
The ARM architecture and the first ARM chip were designed in about one and a half years and 5 human years of work time.
1970s in science and technology
The birth of modern computing was in the 1970s. The world's first general microprocessor, the Intel 4004, came out in November 1971. The C programming language was developed early in the decade and the Unix operating system was rewritten into it in 1973. With "large-scale integration" possible for integrated circuits (microchips) rudimentary personal computers began to be produced along with pocket calculators. Notable home computers released in North America of the era are the Apple II, the TRS-80, the Commodore PET, and Atari 400/800 and the NEC PC-8001 in Japan.
HP FOCUS
The Hewlett-Packard FOCUS microprocessor, launched in 1982, was the first commercial, single chip, fully 32-bit microprocessor available on the market. At this time, all 32-bit competitors (DEC, IBM, Prime Computer, etc.) used multi-chip bit-slice-CPU designs. The FOCUS architecture (Focus CPU, Focus I/O processor (IOP), Focus memory controller (MMU), 16 KB x8 dynamic RAM, and a timer) was used in the Hewlett-Packard HP 9000 Series 500 workstations and servers (originally launched as the HP 9020 and also, unofficially, called HP 9000 Series 600). It was a stack architecture, with over 220 instructions (some 32 bits wide, some 16 bits wide), a segmented memory model, and no general purpose programmer-visible registers. The design of the FOCUS CPU was richly inspired by the custom silicon on sapphire (SOS) chip design, HP used in their 16-bit HP 3000 series machines.
Personal computer
The central processing unit (CPU) is a part of a computer that executes instructions of a software program. In newer PCs, the CPU contains over a million transistors in one integrated circuit chip called the microprocessor. In most cases, the processor plugs directly into the motherboard. The processor chip may have a heat sink and a fan attached for cooling. A large number of computers today are suited to run an x86-compatible microprocessor manufactured by Intel, AMD, or VIA Technologies.
1801 series CPU
In 1980 the first 1801 CPU intended to fill this niche, K1801VE1, entered production. It was essentially a microcontroller with 256 bytes of on-chip RAM, 2K ROM and other peripheral circuitry, still based on Elektronika NC instruction set, but compatible with a Soviet clone of DEC's Q-Bus that was already adopted as an industry standard — a first sign of things to come. Its peripheral circuits were underutilized by the industry, as it was mostly used as a general-purpose CPU, rather than a microcontroller, so it was decided to simplify the chip, removing unnecessary devices from the die. But by that time its parent organization, the SCC, has already lost in the power games that plagued Soviet industry.
DEC Alpha
At the time of its announcement, Alpha was heralded as an architecture for the next 25 years. While this was not to be, Alpha has nevertheless had a reasonably long life. The first version, the Alpha 21064 (otherwise known as the EV4) was introduced in November 1992 running at up to 192 MHz; a slight shrink of the die (the EV4S, shrunk from 0.75 µm to 0.675 µm) ran at 200 MHz a few months later. The 64-bit processor was a superpipelined and superscalar design, like other RISC designs, but nevertheless outperformed them all and DEC touted it as the world's fastest processor. Careful attention to circuit design, a hallmark of the Hudson design team, like a huge centralized clock circuitry, allowed them to run the CPU at higher speeds, even though the microarchitecture was fairly similar to other RISC chips. In comparison, the less expensive Intel Pentium ran at 66 MHz when it was launched the following spring.
History of general-purpose CPUs
In 1962, IBM tried a new approach to designing computers. The plan was to make a family of computers that could all run the same software, but with different performances, and at different prices. As users' needs grew, they could move up to larger computers, and still keep all of their investment in programs, data and storage media.
Busicom
Intel's Ted Hoff was assigned to studying Busicom's design, and came up with a much more elegant, 4 ICs architecture centered on what was to become the 4004 microprocessor surrounded by a mixture of 3 different ICs containing ROM, shift registers, input/output ports and RAM—Intel's first product (1969) was the 3101 Schottky TTL bipolar 64-bit SRAM. Busicom's management agreed to Hoff's new approach and the chips' implementation was led by Federico Faggin who had previously developed the Silicon Gate Technology at Fairchild Semiconductor. It was this technology that made possible the design of the microprocessor and the dynamic RAMs. The 4 ICs were delivered to Busicom in January 1971.
History of computing hardware
In 1951, British scientist Maurice Wilkes developed the concept of microprogramming from the realisation that the central processing unit of a computer could be controlled by a miniature, highly specialised computer program in high-speed ROM. Microprogramming allows the base instruction set to be defined or extended by built-in programs (now called firmware or microcode). This concept greatly simplified CPU development. He first described this at the University of Manchester Computer Inaugural Conference in 1951, then published in expanded form in IEEE Spectrum in 1955.
Itanium
HP believed that it was no longer cost-effective for individual enterprise systems companies such as itself to develop proprietary microprocessors, so it partnered with Intel in 1994 to develop the IA-64 architecture, derived from EPIC. Intel was willing to undertake a very large development effort on IA-64 in the expectation that the resulting microprocessor would be used by the majority of enterprise systems manufacturers. HP and Intel initiated a large joint development effort with a goal of delivering the first product, Merced, in 1998.
Central processing unit
As the microelectronic technology advanced, an increasing number of transistors were placed on ICs, decreasing the number of individual ICs needed for a complete CPU. MSI and LSI ICs increased transistor counts to hundreds, and then thousands. By 1968, the number of ICs required to build a complete CPU had been reduced to 24 ICs of eight different types, with each IC containing roughly 1000 MOSFETs. In stark contrast with its SSI and MSI predecessors, the first LSI implementation of the PDP-11 contained a CPU composed of only four LSI integrated circuits.
PowerPC G4
The PowerPC 970 (G5) was the first IBM-manufactured CPU to implement VMX/AltiVec, for which IBM reused the old 7400 design they still had from the design they did with Motorola in Somerset. The Xenon CPU in the Xbox 360 also features VMX, with added proprietary extensions made especially for Microsoft. POWER6, introduced in 2007, is IBMs first "big iron" CPU to also implement VMX.
Computer
The first practical ICs were invented by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments and Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor. Kilby recorded his initial ideas concerning the integrated circuit in July 1958, successfully demonstrating the first working integrated example on 12 September 1958. In his patent application of 6 February 1959, Kilby described his new device as "a body of semiconductor material ... wherein all the components of the electronic circuit are completely integrated". Noyce also came up with his own idea of an integrated circuit half a year later than Kilby. His chip solved many practical problems that Kilby's had not. Produced at Fairchild Semiconductor, it was made of silicon, whereas Kilby's chip was made of germanium.