Silicon, Circuits, and the Digital Revolution

History of the Microprocessor

Examine poster of Intel's 386 microprocessor.)

• The now-outdated Pentium Pro has 5.5 million transistors.
• About 15 years ago, the 386 microprocessor was introduced;
  it had 275,000 tranistors on a chip of silicon about 1cm x 1cm.
  
• How can so many transistors be put on such a small amount of silicon?
  

  Date	Intel	Transistors	Technology
  	CPU	(x1000)
  1978	8086	29	2.0 micron
  1982	80286	134	HMOS
  10/85	80386	275	0.8 micron CMOS
  04/89	80486	1200
  05/93	Pentium (P5)	3100	0.8 micron biCMOS
  11/95	Pentium Pro (P6)	5500	0.6 micron biCMOS

• Graph of the data above.

Group Exercise: Find the transistor count for more recent (and planned) offerings by Intel.

Online Resources
      sandpile.org, the world's leading source for pure technical I!-32 processor information
      How Microprocessors Work from How Stuff Works

Comments, suggestions, or requests to ghw@udel.edu. "http://www.physics.udel.edu/~watson/scen103/colloq2000/microprocessor.html" Last updated April 20, 2000 (revised May 11, 2004). © George Watson, Univ. of Delaware, 2000.