Home » Technology » Computer Processors » History of Microprocessors

History of Microprocessors

© Shashank Nagaraja

A microprocessor or Central Processing Unit (CPU), is an electronic circuit, which is capable of making logical decisions with the help of data fed into it as input, which is processed by it to give the output. The word "processor" is derivative of the word "process" which means to carry out systematic operations on the data. It is the brain of any computer, which controls and co-ordinates the various activities going on inside it. No logically enabled device can do without it. It forms the very basis of not only computers, but also many other devices such as cell phones, PDAs, satellites, and many other hand held devices. They are also present in modern day cars (with MPFI engines).

Intel 4004 was the first microprocessor, which was introduced in 1971. The 4004 was basically designed for a calculator named "Busicom" which was one of the first portable electronic calculators. It was not powerful enough, as all it could do was add and subtract, that too only at four bits a time i.e. half a byte (which is also known as a nibble.)

Before the 4004 microprocessor was launched, computers were built either from collections of chips or from discrete components such as transistors. (A transistor is a semiconductor, which was an improvement over thermionic valve tubes. It is a solid state device) The machines then, were not portable and were very bulky, and power hungry. The 4004 changed the scene with all its circuitary on a single chip.

Intel 8080 microprocessor, which introduced in 1974, was the first microprocessor, which made its way into homes as a home computer named Altair. It was a development over the 4004 featuring a complete 8-bit computer on one chip. It costed around $385 and sold tens ans thousands of pieces within months, following which, the Intel 8088, was launched in 1979, which was incorporated in the IBM PCs launched in 1982, which was a smash hit. This concept was so sucessful that it brought Intel into the ranks of the Fortune 500 and the Fortune magazine named the company as "The Business triumphs of the Seventies". Later on came the 80286 processor.

The copyright of the article History of Microprocessors in Computer Processors is owned by . Permission to republish History of Microprocessors in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.