Intel Celebrates 40th Anniversary of First CPU: 4004

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
According to its Wikipedia article, the first public mention of the first-ever complete design CPU occurred on November 15, 1971, making today its 40th anniversary. That chip was Intel's 4004, sporting a 4-bit architecture, a 16-pin package (compare that to Sandy Bridge-E's 2011 pins) and a blazing-fast speed of 0.740MHz. Sure, paltry by today's standards, but back then, the 4004 was ground-breaking.

intel_4004_package_111511.jpg

Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!
 
Top