Intel Celebrates 40th Anniversary of the Microprocessor

[ta152h]

Only 5000 times faster? That number is way too low. Just look at clock speed. Let's say 4 GHz versus 100 KHz. That's already 40,000 faster. The IPC is dramatically better, well over a 100 times, so let's just use 100 (it's a very conservative number, considering this thing was 4-bit) Now we're at 4,000,000. We've got eight core processors which are not too unusual. Let's be conservative and say we get 4x improvement from eight cores. So, we're at 16,000,000 times faster. It's really quite a bit higher, because I was very conservative. 5000? It's not even close.

The 8080 was the first really powerful microprocessor. Everything before it was really incapable of being a general purpose device.

 

[JOSHSKORN]

[citation][nom]BlackHawk91[/nom]Let's get back in time: Which is the oldest intel CPU that you currently have laying around? Mine is a not so old Intel 80486DX2[/citation]
TRS-80. Do I win? 😀

 

[ta152h]

[citation][nom]JOSHSKORN[/nom]TRS-80. Do I win?[/citation]

The original TRS-80 used a Z-80, which was made by Zilog, not Intel 🙁 . Strangely, the processor is still being made today.

 

[MichaelC4]

The 4004 is one day older than me. Today is my 40th birthday.

 

[mavroxur]

Let's get back in time: Which is the oldest intel CPU that you currently have laying around? Mine is a not so old Intel 80486DX2

I've got a pair of MOS 6502's, several Zilog Z80's, one TMS 9900NL, and a handful of 8086's/8088's. The MOS 6502 is the oldest (from early 1978).

 

[mavroxur]

No such creature. They started at 150 Mhz, ended at 200 MHz. 486s and Pentiums were available at 75 MHz, although this was not at all popular for the 486. It was really a way to upgrade your 25 MHz based 486, I don't remember any machine being sold at 75 MHz 486.

While the OP is obviously mistaken, there's an error in your statement too. Intel did make an engineering sample Pentium Pro that was clocked at 133MHz. And the Intel 486DX4/75 was a very common processor.

 

[Teeroy32]

My oldest and only intel (only pc for that matter, unless you count commodore 64) is a Pentium 4 Prescott 3.4ghz LGA775, teamed up with a 256mb Geforce 6600 its my gaming and video encoding rig, gotta love Mod Warfare 1 and left4dead at 800 x 600 and an hour to rip a movie