4004 is the first microprocessor of Intel and the first commercial processor in the world. The birth of 4004 is rooted in Busicom calculator, because this microprocessor was originally developed as a part of the project of Busicom, a Japanese calculator manufacturer, and Busicom originally provided 12 custom chips for this project. Busicom paid $60,000 to Intel, thus obtaining the ownership of the microprocessor. Later, Intel offered to exchange $60,000 for the ownership of the microprocessor design. Busicom agreed to Intel's request, and on June 5438+097 1, 1, 1 and 65438+5, Intel introduced the 4004 processor to the global market. The processor has 2300 transistors and the speed is 108 KHz. At that time, the price was $299.

1972: 8008 microprocessor

8008 was introduced by Intel at 1972. Its performance is twice that of 4004, with 3500 transistors and a speed of 200 KHz. In 1974, it was adopted by a device called Mark-8, which was one of the earliest home computers. At this time, the desktop basically formed a preliminary prototype.

1974: 8080 microprocessor

1974, Intel introduced a more powerful 8080 processor with 6000 transistors and a speed of 2 MHz. 8080 is the first personal computer Altair's brain. At that time, computer enthusiasts could buy Altair suite for $395. In the following months, Altair sold tens of thousands of computers, which caused the first computer shortage in sales history.

1978: 8088 microprocessor

Taking the opportunity of market sales and increasing market demand, Intel introduced the 8088 processor with better performance at 1978. The processor has 29,000 transistors, and the speed can be divided into three products: 5MHz, 8MHz and 10MHz, which provides consumers with more freedom of choice in the commercial market for the first time. At the same time, Intel successfully sold 8088 to IBM's brand-new PC division, making it possible.

1982: 286 microprocessor

286 (also called 80286) is a standard product for processors to enter new technologies, with 134000 transistors and four main frequencies of 6MHz, 8MHz, 10MHz and 12.5 MHz. 286 is Intel's first fully compatible processor, that is, it can run all the software written for its previous processor. This software compatibility has also become a constant feature of the Intel processor family. Within six years after the product was released, the number of personal computers based on 286 processors in the world reached about 654.38+05 million.

1985: 386 microprocessor

In order to adapt to the global development of enterprises, Intel released a 386 processor in the autumn of 1985. It can be said that it is an upgraded version of 286, with 275,000 transistors, which is about 100 times of the original 4004 processor. 386 is a 32-bit "multi-processing" chip-that is, it can run multiple programs at the same time, compared with 686.

1989: 486 microprocessor

The 486 processor has1.2000 transistors, and the frequencies are divided into three versions: 25MHz, 33MHz and 50MHz. The application of 486 processor means that users get rid of the computer in command form and enter a "click-and-click" computing era. The 486 processor adopts the built-in mathematical coprocessor for the first time, which separates the mathematical operation function of the load from the central processor, thus

1993-1997: Pentium processor

Pentium is an epoch-making product, which has influenced the PC field for ten years. At present, this name is still in use. Pentium processors enable computers to integrate "real-world" data more easily, such as voice, voice, handwriting and pictures.

1On March 22nd, 993, Intel released Pentium 60MHz and 66Mhz processors at the same time, both of which were manufactured by 0.80 micron process technology, and the core consisted of 365,438+million transistors.

1On March 7, 1994, Intel released Pentium 90MHz and 100Mhz processors, both of which were manufactured by 0.60 micron process technology, and their cores consisted of 3.2 million transistors.

1994 March 10, Intel released the first notebook Pentium processor (Pentium 75MHz), which was manufactured by 0.60 micron process technology and its core consisted of 3.2 million transistors.

1On March 27th, 995, Intel released the Pentium 120MHz processor, which adopted two processes of 0.60μ m /0.35, but the core still consisted of 3.2 million transistors.

1In June, 1995, Intel released Pentium 133MHz processor, which was manufactured by 0.35 process technology and its core was upgraded to 3.3 million transistors.

1 995165438+10/day, Intel released Pentium 150MHz, Pentium 166MHz, Pentium 180MHz and Pentium 200. At this time, based on the previous design, Intel added two versions of L2 cache: 256K and 5 12K.

199665438+1On October 4th, Intel released two processors, Pentium 150MHz and Pentium 166MHz, which adopted 0.35 micron process technology, but the core consisted of 3.3 million transistors.

1June, 996 10, Intel released the Pentium 200MHz processor, which uses 0.35 micron process technology, but the core still consists of 3.3 million transistors.

1997 65438+1On October 8th, Intel released two Pentium 166MHz and Pentium 200MHz processors with MMX instruction technology, and upgraded their cores to 4.5 million transistors with 0.35 micron process technology.

199865438+1October12nd, Intel released the Pentium 266MHz processor, which uses 0.35 micron process technology and its core consists of 3.3 million transistors.

1997- 1998: Pentium II processor

1On May 7th, 997, Intel released three PII processors, namely Pentium II 233MHz, Pentium II 266MHz and Pentium II 300MHz, which adopted 0.35 micron process technology to upgrade the core to 7.5 million transistors.

1On June 2nd, 997, Intel released the Pentium II 233MHz processor with MMX instruction technology, with a 0.35 micron process technology and a core of 4.5 million transistors.

1997 On August 8 18, Intel released the Pentium II 200MHz processor with L2 cache of 1M, which was fabricated in a 0.35 micron process and its core consisted of 5.5 million transistors.

1997, Intel began to fully transfer its processors to the slot 1 interface platform. This development of Intel is also regarded as strong evidence that its technical strategy is strongly influenced by market demand. The only technical explanation for using slot 1 interface is that there is not enough space in the processor to put the secondary cache, so it should be placed on another circuit board. At the beginning of this era, Intel also introduced Celeron processors with slot 1 interface without L2 cache.

During this period, SDR memory with the frequency of 100MHZ has appeared in the market, but Intel unexpectedly announced that they would give up parallel memory and promote a memory called Rambus. At that time, Siemens, Hewlett-Packard, Dell and many other big companies invested in Rambus, but the popularity of DDR memory later proved Intel's failure.

1998 65438+1On October 26th, Intel released the Pentium II 333MHz processor, which is made up of 7.5 million transistors in a 0.35 micron process.

1998 April 15, Intel released Pentium II 350MHz, Pentium II 400MHz and the first Celeron 266MHz processor. These three CPUs all adopt the latest 0.25 micron process technology, and the core consists of 7.5 million transistors.

1On June 29th, 998, Intel released the Pentium II Xeon 400MHz processor. At the same time, 5 12K and 1M versions of L2 cache are provided, which adopts 0.25 micron process technology and the core consists of 7.5 million transistors.

1On August 24th, 998, Intel released the Pentium II 450MHz processor, which adopted 0.25 micron process technology and its core consisted of 7.5 million transistors.

199810/On October 6th, Intel released the Pentium II Xeon 400MHz processor with L2 cache of 5 12K. At the same time, this CPU is specially developed for the motherboard of dual-processor server. It adopts 0.25 micron process technology and its core consists of 7.5 million transistors.

1999 1.5, Intel released Pentium II Xeon 450MHz processor, L2 cache 5 12K, 1M, 2M. At the same time, this CPU is specially developed for the motherboard of four-way processor server, which adopts 0.25 micron process technology and the core is composed of 7.5 million transistors.

1999-2000: Pentium III processor

1On February 26th, 999, Intel released Pentium III 450MHz and Pentium III 500MHz processors. At the same time, it adopts 0.25 micron process technology, and the core consists of 9.5 million transistors. Since then, Intel has been devastated on the journey of PIII!

1999 May 17, Intel released the Pentium III 550MHz processor, which uses 0.25 micron process technology and its core consists of 9.5 million transistors.

1On August 2nd, 999, Intel released the Pentium III 600MHz processor, which adopted 0.25 micron process technology and consisted of 9.5 million transistors.

1999, 10 year1On October 22nd, Intel released Pentium III processors with 500 MHz to 733 MHz. At this time, the latest 0. 18 micron process technology is adopted, providing 256K L2 cache, and the core consists of 28 million transistors.

On March 8, 2000, Intel released the Pentium III 1.0GHz processor, which adopted the latest 0. 18 micron technology and provided 256K L2 cache, and its core consisted of 28 million transistors. Since then, Intel has entered the G era.

On March 20th, 2000, Intel released Pentium III 850MHz and Pentium III 866MHz processors, which adopted 0. 18 micron process technology, provided 256K L2 cache, and the core consisted of 28 million transistors.

On May 24th, 2000, Intel released the Pentium III 933MHz processor, which adopted 0. 18 micron process technology, provided 256K L2 cache, and its core consisted of 28 million transistors.

When the socket370 package was introduced, some consumers gave up the slot 1 platform and chose a new processor. The new PGA package is divided into PPGA and FC-PGA. The former is cheaper, so it is adopted by Celeron processor, and the latter is more expensive, so it is adopted by Pentium III processor. The exception is that Celeron processor with Mendocino kernel has two versions in different packages. Celeron processor encapsulated by PPGA can be used on the motherboard of slot 1 through the adapter card, but Pentium 3 processor encapsulated by FC-PGA is powerless.

2000-2002: Pentium 4 processor

1October 20th, 2000, 165438+Intel released Pentium 4 1.4GHz and Pentium 4 1.5GHz processors, using 0. 18 micron process technology, providing 256K L2 cache, and the core is 42000. At this time, Intel ushered in the P4 era.

On April 23rd, 2000/kloc-0, Intel released Pentium 4 1.6GHz, Pentium 4 1.7GHz and Pentium 4 1.8GHz processors, using 0. 18 micron process technology, providing 256K l 2 cache. The core

Socket423 is as short-lived as slot 1 interface. It took less than one year from its launch in June 2000 to 5438+0 in August 2006. Most users finally upgraded to the more mature socket478 platform, and many users who bought socket423 processors invested in Shui Piao. There is only one CPU in socket423 interface, namely Pentium 4 processor in Willamette kernel. In the end, the sales of this processor in the market were much lower than expected, but Intel's market share increased in the same period. The release of Pentium IV and Netburst gave people great encouragement. Until today, Intel's 3.8GHZ processors still use this architecture. A series of new technologies such as SSE2 instruction set supporting fast video stream coding are also applied in the new processor.

On August 27th, 20001year, Intel released the Pentium 4 1.9GHz processor, which adopted 0. 18 micron process technology, provided 256K L2 cache, and its core consisted of 42 million transistors.

On August 27th, 20001year, Intel released the Pentium 4 2.0GHz processor, which adopted the latest 0. 13 micron process technology, provided 5 12K L2 cache, and its core consisted of 55 million transistors.

On June 7th, 2002, at 65438, Intel released the Pentium 4 2.20GHz processor, which adopted the latest 0. 13 micron process technology, provided 5 12K L2 cache, and its core consisted of 55 million transistors.

On April 2, 2002, Intel released the Pentium 4 2.40GHz processor, which adopted the latest 0. 13 micron technology, provided l 2 cache 5 12K, and its core consisted of 55 million transistors.

On May 6th, 2002, Intel released three Pentium 4 2.26 GHz, Pentium 4 2.40 GHz and Pentium 4 2.53 GHz processors with front-end bus of 533MHz, which adopted the latest 0. 13 micron technology and provided a 5 12K L2 cache with 55 million transistors in the core.

On August 26th, 2002, Intel released two Pentium 4 2.50 GHz and Pentium 4 2.60 GHz processors with 400MHz front-side bus, and also released Pentium 4 2.66 GHz and Pentium 4 2.80 GHz processors with 533MHz front-side bus. These four CPUs all adopt the latest 0. 13 micron process technology, provide 5 12K L2 cache, and the core consists of 55 million transistors.

With the increase of the main frequency of the processor and the number of internal integrated transistors, the energy consumed by the processor also begins to increase greatly. In order to meet the huge power required by the processor, because the power of Pentium IV processor has reached 72W, it is necessary to attach an additional power interface to the motherboard to meet the power supply requirements of the processor, and due to the increase of calorific value, the cooling fan has become a necessity. Intel's main platform equipped with Pentium IV is 850 platform, and the dual-channel Rambus memory has reached an unprecedented memory data bandwidth of 2.5GB/S, but because Rambus memory is expensive, the early P4 platform is also quite expensive. However, due to contract restrictions, Intel could not use the DDR memory that had appeared on the market at that time.

Although the new Pentium 4 processor is quite mature, its sales in the market are still unsatisfactory, mainly due to the expensive RDRAM memory. Although Intel later introduced the 845 scheme to allow users to use SDR memory, the data transmission rate of SDR memory is obviously not satisfactory. At that time, DDR memory had appeared on the market, but due to protocol problems, Intel could not use this cheap solution.

After a long wait by consumers, Intel finally reached an agreement with Rambus, and then Intel launched two chipsets based on DDR memory platform, 845D and 845GD. Although DDR has doubled the data bandwidth compared with SDR, it is still insufficient compared with Rambus. This problem was not solved until the appearance of dual-channel DDR memory.

2002-2004: Hyper-threading P4 processor

On June 4th, 2002,165438+1October 65438, Intel released the Pentium 4 3.06 GHz processor with a front-end bus of 533MHz, which adopted 0. 13 micron process technology and provided 5 12K L2 cache, with 55 million cores.

In June, 2003, 165438+ 10, Intel released an ultra-fast version of 3.20 GHz P4 processor supporting HT technology, which adopted 0. 13 micron technology, 5 12 KB L2 cache, 2 MB L3 cache and 800 MHz system bus speed.

In June 2004, Intel released P4 3.4 GHz processor, which supports HT technology, adopts 0. 13 micron process, has 5 12 KB L2 cache, 2 MB L3 cache and 800 MHz system bus speed.

2005-2006: Dual-core processors

In April 2005, Intel introduced the first dual-core processor Pentium Extreme Edition 840, which clocked at 3.2 GHz. It integrates two or more complete execution cores in one processor, making full use of previously idle resources and processing four software threads at the same time.

In May 2005, Intel released the Pentium D dual-core processor, which was launched together with the 945 high-speed chipset family to provide consumers with better performance, such as surround sound audio, high-definition video and enhanced graphics functions.

On June 5438+ 10, 2006, Intel released Pentium D 9xx series processors, including Pentium D 960(3.60GHz) and 950(3.40GHz) which support VT virtualization technology, and Pentium D 945(3.4 GHz), 925(3 GHz) and 96544 which do not support VT.

In July 2006, Intel released ten brand-new Core 2 Duo processors and Core Extreme processors. Core 2 includes five desktop processors specially designed for enterprises, families, workstations and players (such as high-end gamers), and Core 2 can achieve up to 40% performance improvement.

However, Pentium D is not a perfect dual-core architecture. Intel just makes two completely independent CPU cores on the same chip and connects them to the chipset through the same front-end bus. The two cores lack the necessary coordination and resource sharing ability, and also need to refresh the secondary cache frequently to avoid the transfer of work steps between the two cores. In this sense, the progress brought by Pentium D is not as great as people expected! To make matters worse, because the current large-scale 3D games can hardly support dual-core platforms, the game performance of Pentium D/XE is not ideal, and it can only be compared with single-core products with the same frequency. It is estimated that this will be a big blow to players!

Almost at the same time that Intel introduced Pentium D/XE, AMD also introduced Athlon 64 X2 processor with dual-core architecture. Like Intel, AMD has not developed a new kernel specifically for Athlon 64 X2 processor, but it is still a derivative version of Athlon 64 kernel. Different from Intel, AMD considered the possibility of integrating dual cores when designing the K8 architecture, and in order to build a flexible interconnection architecture with multiple processors, it added a task allocation unit for communication between the K8 core and other CPUs!

Summary: Although "Pentium" products will appear in the market for some time to come, the focus of media will turn to "dual-core". If there is any media keeping an eye on "Bence", it will definitely be called "layman" by the insiders. In 2006, dual-core will become the mainstream of the market, and non-dual-core products will gradually fade out. In 2006, Intel will use dual-core processors in all products of desktops, servers and laptops, and all products will enter the dual-core era. By the end of 2006, 40% of Intel desktop CPU, 70% of notebook CPU and 85% of server CPU will develop to multi-core design. Dual-core is no longer a specialized agency in the high-end field of servers. In 2006, Intel will fully promote the dual-core technology into every household.