Intel Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the MicroprocessorIntel Celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Microprocessor

50 years ago Intel engineers simplified a calculator design and created the Intel 4004, the world’s first single-chip microprocessor.

Dan Carney, Senior Editor

November 16, 2021

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The Intel 4004 microprocessor.Intel

While pioneers like Fairchild Semiconductor were among the very earliest Silicon Valley companies, it was Intel, founded by Fairchild employees, that launched the California microprocessor industry to today’s state of utter ubiquity. This started 50 years ago with the release of the Intel 4004, which is regarded as the world’s first commercially available single-chip microprocessor.

These qualifiers are apparently necessary because of some easily overlooked and forgotten devices such as a microprocessor that was used in early F-14 fighter plane prototypes and an ungainly multi-chip processor system. It is commercial products that drive industries, and that was the case for the Intel 4004, although this groundbreaking chip got off to a slow start.

Intel sort of backed into this market, developing the chip at the request of Japanese calculator company Nippon Calculating Machine Corporation for its new Busicom 141-PF printing calculator. In 1969, that company sought a cumbersome 12-chip solution for its desktop calculator. These chips would have their logic programming built into their physical architecture.

Intel engineer Ted Hoff proposed a four-chip alternative, including at its core the programmable 4004 microprocessor. Nippon Calculation Machine Corp. was dissatisfied with this result, so in 1971 Intel refunded the company’s $60,000 to reclaim rights to the 4004 design and offered it as a commercial product to other customers. Even then, it took time for the industry to comprehend the potential of programmable microprocessors.

Related:Is Intel Losing its Memory and (Manufacturing) Mind?

“People were locked into the concept that a computer was a precious, multi-million-dollar piece of equipment,” recalled Hoff. “With this product, we changed people's perception of computers and the direction that the computing industry would go. We democratized the computer.”

“The 4004 was so revolutionary that it took about five years for Intel to educate engineers about how to build new products based on microprocessors,” said 4004 co-inventor Stan Mazor (along with Hoff and Federico Faggin). “Intel was ultimately very successful in this endeavor, and the rest is history.”

This wasn’t Intel’s first example of backing into a new invention. The company created the first integrated circuit somewhat accidentally, according to Intel founder Robert Noyce. “I say that the integrated circuit came out of my own laziness,” he joked.

In those early days, rather than carving out circuits from silicon wafers, semiconductor companies cut out individual transistors, Noyce explained. “We took those transistors that were all nicely arranged on a piece of silicon and cut them into tiny pieces. So then of course we’d ship them to a customer and they’d put them all right back together again. Why not just cut out all of that middle ground? Just put ‘em together while they’re still on the silicon. So that’s what we did.”

Related:Intel Acquires Mobileye, Aims to Lead the Autonomous Vehicles Race

That original 4004 chip featured 2,300 transistors packaged in a 16-pin dual in-line package and ran at 750 kHz. It was fabricated on 2-inch silicon wafers using 10-micron (10,000-nanometer) lithography.

That compares to Intel’s latest technology, the 12th-Generation Intel Core processor family, which incorporates billions of transistors on a 1,700-pin socket package running at 5.2 GHz. It is made on 12-inch silicon wafers using 7-nanometer circuits.

And Nippon Calculation Machine Corp.? That company went out of business in 1974.

About the Author

Dan Carney

Senior Editor, Design News

Dan’s coverage of the auto industry over three decades has taken him to the racetracks, automotive engineering centers, vehicle simulators, wind tunnels, and crash-test labs of the world.

A member of the North American Car, Truck, and Utility of the Year jury, Dan also contributes car reviews to Popular Science magazine, serves on the International Engine of the Year jury, and has judged the collegiate Formula SAE competition.

Dan is a winner of the International Motor Press Association's Ken Purdy Award for automotive writing, as well as the National Motorsports Press Association's award for magazine writing and the Washington Automotive Press Association's Golden Quill award.

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He has held a Sports Car Club of America racing license since 1991, is an SCCA National race winner, two-time SCCA Runoffs competitor in Formula F, and an Old Dominion Region Driver of the Year award winner. Co-drove a Ford Focus 1.0-liter EcoBoost to 16 Federation Internationale de l’Automobile-accredited world speed records over distances from just under 1km to over 4,104km at the CERAM test circuit in Mortefontaine, France.

He was also a longtime contributor to the Society of Automotive Engineers' Automotive Engineering International magazine.

He specializes in analyzing technical developments, particularly in the areas of motorsports, efficiency, and safety.

He has been published in The New York Times, NBC News, Motor Trend, Popular Mechanics, The Washington Post, Hagerty, AutoTrader.com, Maxim, RaceCar Engineering, AutoWeek, Virginia Living, and others.

Dan has authored books on the Honda S2000 and Dodge Viper sports cars and contributed automotive content to the consumer finance book, Fight For Your Money.

He is a member and past president of the Washington Automotive Press Association and is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers

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