On November 15, 1971, 51 years ago to the day, Intel launched its 4004 through a simple advertisement published in the American magazine Electronic News. It was then the first publicly marketed processor, and it had 2,300 transistors. Let’s go back to this chip that entered the legend of the Santa Clara giant.
Thanks to their engraving in 10 nm, and soon less, current Intel processors now have several tens of billions of transistors. For its part, the (colossal) M1 Ultra chip, launched at the beginning of the year by Apple on its Mac Studios, totals some 114 billion transistors thanks to the 5 nm engraving of the Taiwanese TSMC. Enough to measure the progress made in half a century of research and engineering.
A significant technological advance
In 1971, the Intel 4004 already represented a major technological advance. The size of a fingernail, the chip was notably capable of delivering the same computing power as the first computer built in 1946. The latter filled an entire room 25 years earlier, recalls EDN.
The Intel 4004 was also the first general-purpose programmable processor on the market. Its birth is linked to an order from Busicom (Nippon Calculating Machine Corporation, Ltd until 1967). The Japanese company had indeed asked Intel, in 1969, to develop 12 custom chips for its new Busicom 141-PF computer. Intel had responded by suggesting instead the creation of a family of only 4 chips, including a programmable processor capable of being used on a variety of products. This counter-proposal, followed by a technical feat for the time, gave birth a few years later to the 4004 and its successors.
A processor that has gone down in history
Note that some rumors circulate about the Intel 4004. They also contribute to its aura. It is said, for example, that this processor would have been installed by NASA on board the Pioneer 10 space probe, the first to have been launched, in 1972, for interplanetary missions. NASA has since denied this, but nevertheless explained that it had indeed considered using the Intel 4004… before opting for another solution, for lack of sufficient perspective on the chip, which was still brand new at the time.
Sign of the major advance that the Intel 4004 nevertheless represented, Federico Faggin, Stanley Mazor and Marcian “Ted” Hoff, chief engineers who worked on the chip, received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2010. A medal then presented by President Barack Obama in person.
Source : EDN
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