MicroprocessorChipsTable

Lexikon's History of Computing

* * * Microprocessor Chips: Intel * * *

Examples of some of Intel Corporation's microprocessor chips.
For more specific information, contact Intel Corp.

MICROPROCESSOR	YEAR	SPEED	WORD LENGTH	TRANSISTORS	MIPS
Intel 4004	1969	108 KHz	4-bit	2,300	.06
Intel 8008	1972	200 KHz	8-bit	3,500	.06
Intel 8080	1974	2 MHz	8-bit	6,000	.64
Intel 8086	1978	4.47 MHz	16-bit	29,000	.66
Intel 8088	1981	4.47 MHz	16-bit	29,000	.75
Intel 80286	1982	12 MHz	16-bit	134,000	2.66
Intel 80386	1985	16-33 MHz	32-bit	275,000	4
Intel 80486 (i486)	1989	20-100 MHz	32-bit	1.2 Million	70
Intel 80586 (Pentium)	1993	75-200 MHz	32-bit	3.3 Million	126 - 203
Intel Pentium Pro	1995	150-200 MHz	32-bit	5.5 Million	300
Intel Pentium MMX	1997	166-233 MHz	32-bit	4.5 Million	-
Intel Pentium II	1997	233-450 MHz	32-bit	7.5 Million	-
Intel Pentium III	1999	450-933 MHz	32-bit	Over 9.5 Million	-
Intel Itanium Processor (formerly Merced Processor)	2000	1 GHz	64-bit	15,000,000	1,200

Pentium, Pentium Pro, MMX, Itanium, Merced are all copyrighted by Intel Corporation

Computer Processing Speed

Computer processing speed depends on a variety of factors. Three of the most important factors are:

Word length (the number of bits that can be processed at one time by the microprocessor)

Cycle Speed (how fast individual events are processed, measured in Megahertz)

Data Bus Width (determines how much data can be transferred between the CPU and memory)

Other factors Include:

RAM (amount of available random access memory)

Disk Access Speed (speed that data can be read from hard disk)

Code Efficiency (how efficiently the computer code has been designed)

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