World's first microprocessor 40 years old today
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The world's first commercially available microprocessor was launched 40 years ago today. Intel unveiled the 4004 on 15 November 1971, triggering the start of the digital revolution and enabling microprocessors to redefine the world in which we live.
Compared to the Intel 4004, current second generation Intel Core processors have more than 350,000 times the performance, with each transistor using approximately 5000 times less energy. In the same period, the cost of a transistor has fallen by a factor of around 50,000.
Gordon Moore co founded Intel in 1968 and by late December 1970, the first wafers were delivered. Federico Faggin was part of the team that developed the Intel 4004 and etched his initials 'FF' in the lower right corner of the first run sample die (see video below).
Justin Rattner, Intel's chief technology officer and head of Intel Labs, reflected on the anniversary and predicted what may lay ahead: "At this point, it's fair to ask, what lies ahead? What lies beyond multicore and many core computing? And the answer… is called extreme scale computing. This is multicore and many core computing at the extremes. Our 10 year goal here is to achieve nothing modest: a 300x improvement in energy efficiency for computing at the extremes.
"Today, a petaFLOPS computer is burning somewhere between five and seven megawatts. So, if we just scaled it up by 1000x it would be in the gigawatt range and I'd have to buy everyone a nuclear reactor to run that machine; maybe a couple of nuclear reactors"
In 2005, Gordon Moore said: "What computers do well and what human brains do well are really completely different. I believe to get to real human intelligence we'll have to go back and… understand how the brain works better than we do now and take a completely different approach."
According to Intel, advances in chip technology are indeed paving the way for an age when computing systems will be aware of what is happening around them and anticipate people's needs. This capability is poised to fundamentally change the nature of how people interact with and relate to information devices and the services they provide. Future context aware devices ranging from pcs and smartphones to automobiles and televisions, will be able to advise people and guide them through their day in a manner more like a personal assistant than a traditional computer.
Rattner noted: "The sheer number of advances in the next 40 years will equal or surpass all of the innovative activity that has taken place over the last 10,000 years of human history."
