I used to marvel at the changes that occurred during the lifetime of my grandparents. Born in the early 1900s, they saw the rise of the automobile, the invention of radio and television, and our first attempts at computers.
Now, at the age of 66, I’m beginning to marvel at the changes that have occurred during my lifetime. For example, we’ve now reached the 50th anniversary of the microprocessor.
The ad above announces the 4004, 4-bit microprocessor and the 4001 256×8 mask-programmable Read-Only Memory (ROM), the 4002 320-bit Random Access Memory (RAM), and 4003 10-bit shift register. In all, Intel is touting this series of ICs as “a new era of integrated electronics.”
And, indeed, it was. Before this, companies built computers from small-scale integration (SSI) and medium-scale integration (MSI) integrated circuits. Quite often, these were transistor-transistor logic (TTL) chips.
Just to see how far we’ve come, consider that the Intel 4004 had 2,300 transistors. Apple’s new M1 Max processor has more than 57 billion (yes, billion) transistors! This is all just so incredible to me—and I have a degree in electrical engineering.
For more information on the history of the 4004 microprocessor, see Say Happy 50th Birthday to the Microprocessor, Part I by Steven Leibson in Electronic Engineering Journal.
For a second take on the history of the 4004, see Intel 4004 Microprocessor : The first CPU-on-a-chip was a shoestring crash project.
Dave New, N8SBE says
When I was in high school in the late 60’s/early 70’s, we dialed into a GE-255 timesharing system at the local college, via an acoustic modem mounted on a model 35 teletype (with paper tape reader/punch) that ran at the screaming speed of 10 characters per second!
I knew that the price of computing was tumbling (we had $900 Monroe calculators in the classroom), but what I couldn’t see was that the SIZE would shrink fantastically. I dreamed that one day I could have a GE-255 system in my garage (it would have filled it), because the price would drop drastically, but would I couldn’t envision was that power would all fit on a chip smaller than my thumbnail.
We have indeed come a long ways, and it seems like we haven’t lost any steam, either. The best is yet to come…