Category Archives: Microprocessors

Microprocessors and History

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Microprocessors & History

Microprocessors contain core essentials of a computer system.

  • Memory unit
  • ALU
  • Control unit
  • Interrupt / Exception controller
  • Internal cache

History of the Microprocessor

  • In the year 1969, 4004 instruction set had been defined as a computer terminal corporation, also known as the (CTC).
  • Hoff and a man by the name of Stan Mazor put the whole processor on one chip. The MCS-4 was made in April of 1972.
  • Intel 8080 was developed in April of 1972. It was not available to customers at this time because of the design chip into the products and wasn’t ready.
  • In 1978 Intel produced the first ever 16 bit processor the “8086” it was well-matched with the 8080, the 8086 was the most effective processor thus far.

Thus the series of evolution of Microprocessors includes (intel history):

4004 – 4040 – 8008 – 8080 – 8085 – 8086 – 8088 – 80186 – 80188 – 80286 – 80386DX – 80386SX – 80486DX – 80486SX – Pentium Processors

Competitors and the early years

  • The second processor was available late in the year of 1972 developed by Rockwell. In 1974 Texas Instrument came out with the TMS1000 which was the first microprocessor to contain its very own RAM and ROM on chip.
  • The success of the Intel 808 Zilog and Motorola, made the two produce competing chips.
  • Intel’s very first microprocessor contained so much processing power that it was considered the “most powerful” computer in the world at the time.
  • The Intel Pentium processor was released in 1993 making it the first available microprocessor capable of executing two instructions for every clock cycle. Intel’s serious competitor today is the AMD (Advanced Micro Devices).

RISC

In the 1980s and 1990s RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) made its appearance. It was made for Unix workstations and purpose machines, but today are widespread in all roles set aside desktop computers. RISC today designs are based on MIPS, PowerPC and ARM for majority of computing devices.

Facts

  • 44 Billion dollars worth of Microprocessors were made in 2003 as well as sold. Most was spent on laptop and or desktop computers it takes about 0.2 % of the CPU’s sold.
  • Almost 56% of CPUs sold are 8 bit microcontrollers.

Less the 10 % of CPUs sold are 32 bit or more. Most are sold in house hold appliances such as vacuums, TVs, Microwaves, toasters and so forth.