intel prossesors

Shown is the historic Intel P4004 microprocessor. The 4004 is considered the world's first microprocessor. The 4004 was created by Intel with Ted Hoff and Federico Faggin as the lead designers. The 4004 provided a new tool to the world. Up to that time and semiconductors and IC's ("integrated circuits") were built for a specific purpose. The 4004 was the first semiconductor device that provided, at the chip level, the functions of a computer. Although the 4004 was created for use in calculators, it was found to have many other applications.

The Intel 4004 provided the basic building blocks that are still found in today's microcomputers: the arithmetic and logic unit and the control unit. The 4-bit Intel 4004 ran at a clock speed of 108 kHz and contained 2,300 transistors. The 4004 processed data in 4 bits, but its instructions were 8 bits long. The 4004 could address up to 1 Kb of program memory and up to 4 Kb of data memory. The 4004 chip had sixteen 4-bit (or eight 8-bit) general purpose registers, and an instruction set containing 46 instructions. The packaging design of the P4004 was plastic with tin pins in a DIP ("Dual Inline Package") configuration.