The Complete Computer Processor History

You know that little chip inside your computer or smartphone that makes everything tick? It’s called a processor, and boy, does it have a story to tell!

Picture this: it’s the 1970s. Bell-bottoms are in, disco is king, and computers are these massive machines taking up entire rooms. Fast forward to today, and we’re walking around with more computing power in our pockets than NASA had when they sent astronauts to the moon. Wild, right?

The journey from those room-sized behemoths to the sleek devices we have today is nothing short of mind-blowing. It’s a tale of human ingenuity, relentless innovation, and some seriously smart cookies pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

In this whirlwind tour through processor history, we’re going to meet the unsung heroes who changed the game. We’ll see how these tiny silicon marvels evolved from simple number-crunchers to the brain-like powerhouses they are today. Trust me, it’s way more exciting than it sounds!

So, buckle up, tech enthusiasts and curious cats alike. We’re about to embark on a journey through time, tracing the evolution of the mighty processor. From the birth of the integrated circuit to the multi-core monsters of today, it’s a story of big dreams, bigger breakthroughs, and the occasional spectacular failure.

Ready to geek out a little and discover how we ended up with supercomputers in our hands?

History of The Processor

CPUs have gone through many changes through the short years since Intel came out with the first one. IBM chose Intel’s 8088 processor for the brains of the first PC. This choice by IBM is what made Intel the de facto leader of the CPU market. It remains the leader of microprocessor development. It usually come out with the new ideas first. Then companies such as AMD and Cyrix come in with their versions, usually with some minor improvements, and slightly faster.

Intel processors have gone through five generations. A sixth is taking hold. The first four generations took on the “8” as the series name, which is why the technical types refer to this family of chips as the 8088, 8086, and 80186. This goes right on up to the 80486, or just 486. Then came along the Pentium. Intel went off and changed the name on this one. Some guys, though, call it the P5, or a 80586. Anyway, the higher the chip number, the more powerful the chip is, and the more costly.

Key Milestones in the History of Computer Processors

1823: The Discovery of Silicon

Baron Jöns Jacob Berzelius, a Swedish chemist, discovered silicon (Si), which would later become the fundamental building block of modern processors. This discovery laid the groundwork for the entire field of semiconductor electronics, though its significance wouldn’t be fully realized for over a century.

1903: The Birth of Electrical Logic

Nikola Tesla, the brilliant inventor and electrical engineer, patented electrical logic circuits called “gates” or “switches.” This breakthrough was a crucial step towards the development of modern computing, as these logic gates form the basis of digital circuit design used in processors today.

1947: The Invention of the Transistor

On December 23, 1947, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley invented the first transistor at Bell Laboratories. This revolutionary device would replace bulky and unreliable vacuum tubes, paving the way for smaller, more efficient electronic devices. The transistor is often called one of the most important inventions of the 20th century.

1948: Transistor Patent

Building on their groundbreaking work, Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley patented the first transistor in 1948. This patent would prove to be one of the most valuable in the history of technology, as transistors became the fundamental building blocks of all modern electronics.

1956: Nobel Prize Recognition

The immense importance of the transistor was recognized when Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work. This accolade underscored the transformative potential of their invention, which was already beginning to revolutionize the electronics industry.

1958: The First Integrated Circuit

A major leap forward occurred when the first working Integrated Circuit (IC) was developed independently by Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor and Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments. On September 12, 1958, Kilby demonstrated the first working integrated circuit. This invention allowed multiple transistors to be combined on a single chip, dramatically increasing computing power while reducing size and cost.

It’s worth noting that Geoffrey Dummer, a British electronics engineer, is credited as the first person to conceptualize and build a prototype of the integrated circuit, though he was unable to produce a working device.

1960: Mass Production of Transistors

IBM developed the first automatic mass-production facility for transistors in New York. This development was crucial in making transistors more affordable and accessible, accelerating the growth of the computer industry.

1965: Moore’s Law

On April 19, 1965, Gordon Moore, co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and later Intel, made an observation that would become known as Moore’s Law. He predicted that the number of transistors on a microchip would double about every two years, while the cost would halve. This prediction has held remarkably true for decades and has become a guiding principle for the semiconductor industry.

1968: The Founding of Intel

Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore founded Intel Corporation, which would go on to become the world’s largest semiconductor chip manufacturer. Intel’s innovations in microprocessor design and manufacturing would drive much of the progress in computing over the following decades.

1969: The Birth of AMD

On May 1, 1969, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) was founded. Initially a second-source manufacturer for Intel’s products, AMD would eventually become Intel’s primary competitor in the microprocessor market, driving innovation and competition in the industry.

These milestones set the stage for the rapid advancement of computer processor technology in the following decades, leading to the powerful, compact devices we use today. The story of computer processors is one of continuous innovation, driven by brilliant minds and groundbreaking discoveries.

Intel 8086 (1978)

This chip was skipped over for the original PC, but was used in a few later computers that didn’t amount to much. It was a true 16-bit processor and talked with its cards via a 16 wire data connection.

Intel 8088 (1979)

This is the chip used in the first PC. It was 16-bit, but it talked to the cards via a 8-bit connection. It ran at a whopping 4 MHz and could address only 1 MB of RAM.

NEC V20 and V30 (1981)

Clones of the 8088 and 8086. Supposedly about 30% faster than the Intel originals.

Intel 80186

The 186 was a popular chip. Many versions have been developed in its history. Buyers could choose from CHMOS or HMOS, 8-bit or 16-bit versions, depending on need. A CHMOS chip could run at twice the clock speed and at one fourth the power of the HMOS chip. In 1990, Intel came out with the Enhanced 186 family. They shared a 1-micron core design and ran at about 25MHz at 3 volts.For more information on the 80186 Intel chip:

Intel 186 Microprocessors
186 High-Integration 16-bit Processor Datasheet

Intel 80286 (1982)

A 16-bit processor capable of addressing up to 16 MB of RAM. This chip is able to work with virtual memory. What is that? See Memory. The 286 was the first “real” processor. It introduced the concept of protected mode. This is the ability to multitask, having different programs run separately but at the same time.

This ability was not taken advantage of by DOS, but later Operating Systems, such as Windows, could play with this new feature. This chip was used by IBM in its Advanced Technology PC (AT). It ran at 6 MHz, but later editions of the chip ran as high as 20 MHz. These chips are considered paperweights today, but many still use them.

Intel 386 (1988)

This chip started it all. With this chip, PCs began to be more useful than boat anchors. The 386 was the first 32-bit processor for PCs. It could, as a result, crunch twice as much data on each clock cycle and it could play around with 32-bit cards. It can talk to as much as 4 GB of real memory and 64 TB of virtual memory.

This little badboy could also team up with a math coprocessor, called the 80387. It could also use processor cache, all 16 bytes of it. The reduced version of this chip is the 386SX. This is a low-fat chip, cheaper to make. It talked with the cards via a 16-bit path. 386s range in speed from 12.5MHz to 33MHz.386 chips were designed to be user friendly. All chips in the family were pin-for-pin compatible and they were binary compatible with the previous 186 chips, meaning that users didn’t have to get new software to use it.

Also, the 386 offered power-friendly features such as low voltage requirements and System Management Mode (SMM) which could power down various components to save power.Overall, this was a big step for chip development. It set the standard that many later chips would follow. It offered a simple design which developers could easily design for.For a little more information on the 386:

Embedded 386 Microprocessors
386SX Microprocessor Datasheet
Intel486 Processor Reference Information
For more technical design information on the chip, see Embedded Intel Architecture
High Performance 486 Processors
486SX Datasheet
486DX2 Datasheet
486DX4 Datasheet

1988: A Pivotal Year in Processor History

The year 1988 marked significant developments in the computer processor industry, with the emergence of a new competitor and the introduction of an important processor model by the industry leader.

The Founding of Cyrix

In 1988, ex-Texas Instruments employees Jerry Rogers and Tom Brightman founded Cyrix Corporation in Richardson, Texas. This new entrant into the processor market would play a crucial role in driving competition and innovation over the next decade.

Key points about Cyrix:

Market Strategy: Cyrix initially focused on producing math coprocessors that were faster and less expensive than Intel’s offerings. These coprocessors were designed to work alongside the main CPU to handle complex mathematical calculations.
Industry Impact: The company’s entry into the market provided much-needed competition to Intel, which had been dominating the processor industry. This competition would lead to faster innovation and more affordable prices for consumers.
Future Developments: In the years following its founding, Cyrix would go on to produce x86-compatible CPUs, directly challenging Intel in the mainstream processor market. This would contribute to a more diverse and competitive processor landscape in the 1990s.

Introduction of the Intel 80386SX

Also in 1988, Intel introduced the 80386SX processor, a significant iteration in its x86 processor family.

Key features and impacts of the 80386SX:

Design Philosophy: The 80386SX was designed as a cost-effective version of the full 80386DX processor. It maintained most of the 386’s features but with a narrower (16-bit) external data bus, making it cheaper to manufacture and easier to integrate into less expensive computer systems.
Technical Specifications:

Clock speeds ranged from 16 to 33 MHz
32-bit internal architecture with a 16-bit external bus
Supported up to 16 MB of RAM
Fully supported 32-bit software, including protected mode

Market Impact: The 386SX allowed PC manufacturers to produce more affordable 32-bit computers, helping to bring 32-bit computing to a broader market. This accelerated the transition from 16-bit to 32-bit computing in personal computers.

Software Implications: The wider availability of 32-bit processors encouraged software developers to create more sophisticated applications, taking advantage of the increased capabilities of these chips.

Legacy: The 386SX played a crucial role in the evolution of the PC market, bridging the gap between older 16-bit systems and the new era of 32-bit computing. It helped set the stage for the rapid advancements in PC technology that would occur in the early 1990s.

The events of 1988 – the founding of Cyrix and the introduction of the Intel 80386SX – illustrate the dynamic nature of the processor industry during this period. The entrance of new competitors and the continuous innovation by established players were driving forces in the rapid evolution of computer technology, setting the stage for the PC revolution of the 1990s.

1989 – Cyrix Shakes Up the Coprocessor Market

In 1989, just a year after its founding, Cyrix made a significant splash in the computer processor industry with the release of its first products: the FasMath 83D87 and 83S87 coprocessors. This launch marked Cyrix’s entry into direct competition with Intel and set the stage for a new era of competition in the processor market.

The FasMath Coprocessors

The FasMath 83D87 and 83S87 were floating-point unit (FPU) coprocessors designed to work alongside 386 CPUs. These chips were responsible for handling complex mathematical calculations, particularly floating-point operations, which were crucial for scientific, engineering, and graphics applications.

Intel 486 (1991)

This was the next generation processor. It brought the brains of a 386 together with an internal math coprocessor–plus it was much faster. This chip has been pushed to 120 MHz and is still in wide use today.The first member of the 486 family was the 486SX. It was very power efficient and performed well for the time. The efficient design led to new packaging innovations.

The 486SX came in a 176 lead Thin Quad Flat Pack (TQFP) package and was about the thickness of a quarter.The next members of the 486 family were the DX2s and DX4s. Their speeds were obtained with speed-multiplier technology, which enabled the chip to operate at clock cycles greater than that of the bus. They also introduced the concept of RISC.

Reduced instruction set chips(RISC) do just a few things, but really fast. This made this chip more efficient and set it apart from the older x86 chips. The DX2 offered 8 KB of write-through cache and the DX4 offered 16 KB. This cache helps the chip maintain its one clock cycle per instruction operation, through the use of RISC.It had SX and DX versions.

Both were completely 32-bit, but the SX lacks the math coprocessor. Nevertheless, the SX version is roughly twice as fast as the 386. (Actually, the math coprocessor in the SX is there, just disabled for marketing purposes, I’m sure.).

1992 – 486DX2

On March 2, 1992, Intel unveiled the groundbreaking 486DX2 processor, marking a significant leap in computer processing power. The chip’s innovative clock-doubling technology allowed it to operate at twice the speed of the external bus, pushing performance boundaries without requiring extensive motherboard redesigns. This clever engineering solution effectively bridged the growing gap between CPU and memory speeds, offering a cost-effective upgrade path for existing systems.

The 486DX2 initially launched with a 66 MHz variant, doubling the then-common 33 MHz external bus speed. This substantial performance boost made resource-intensive applications more accessible to mainstream users, accelerating the adoption of graphical user interfaces and multimedia software. The chip’s success also influenced future processor designs, with clock multiplication becoming a standard feature in subsequent generations.

Intel’s strategic pricing of the 486DX2 positioned it as an attractive option for both manufacturers and enthusiasts, spurring rapid adoption across the PC market. This release not only cemented Intel’s technological leadership but also set new expectations for processor performance, driving the entire industry towards faster and more efficient designs.

1993 – The Pentium

Intel brought the PC to the 64-bit level with the Pentium Processor in 1993. It has 3.3 million transistors and performs at 100 million instructions per second(MIPS).

The Pentium family includes the 75/90/100/120/133/150/166/200 clock speeds. It is compatible with all of the older OSes including DOS, Windows 3.1, Unix and OS/2. Its superscalar design can execute two instructions per clock cycle. The separate caches and the pipelined floating point unit increase its performance beyond the x86 chips. It has SL power management features and has the ability to work as a team with another Pentium. The chip talks over a 64-bit bus to its cards. It has 273 pins connecting it to the motherboard. Internally, though, it’s really two 32-bit chips chained together that split the work. The chip comes with 16 K of built-in cache.

This chip, although fast, gets really hot, so the use of a CPU fan is required. Rather recently, Intel has released more efficient versions of the chip that operate at 3.3 volts, rather than the usual 5 volts. This has reduced the heat somewhat.

Here are some extra little things:

The processor has a burst mode that loads 256-bit chunks of data into the data cache in a single clock cycle. It can transfer data to the memory at up to 528 MB/Sec. Also, Intel took it upon themselves to hardwire several heavily used commands into the chip. This bypasses the typical microcode library of commands. It also has a built-in self-test that operates upon resetting.

For more information on the processor, consult the following links:

Overdrive Processors

Overdrive chips are generally known as turbochargers for older chips. They can be a cost-effective upgrade between your old chip and the new-fangled stuff. Intel is really the king of overdrives, having produced a line of them for the 486 machines and some for the Pentiums.

These chips basically allow the CPU to work at double the clock speed. Intel estimates that their overdrives can increase performance by 70%. They are not complete magic, though. The CPU still talks to its external cards at the same speed. So, in essence, you can have a fast thinking computer that talks real slow.