Timelines :: The Microprocessor

pc-tlBecause the Bible tells us the Antichrist will someday achieve total control over the global economy, technological advancements are a necessary factor in his rise to power. The development of the microprocessor is one of the most amazing timelines you can observe. I’ve compiled a list of the significant milestones Intel Corporation, the world’s largest producer of microprocessors, achieved from 1972 to the present day. If you’re like me, you may not understand what difference between the speed of a Megahertz (MHz) and a Gigahertz (GHz) represents. All you really need to know is speed comparison. Basic math will tell you 200 MHz is ten times the speed of 20 MHz, and 1 GHz is simply equally to 1000 MHz.


April 1972
Name of Processor: 8008
Clock speed: 200 kilohertz
Number of transistors: 3,500

December 1974
Name of Processor: 8080
Clock speed: 2 MHz
Number of transistors: 6,000

August 1976
Name of Processor: 8085
Clock speed: 5 MHz
Number of transistors: 6,500

September 1978
Name of Processor: 8086
Clock speed: 10 MHz
Number of transistors: 29,000

February 1982
Name of Processor: 286
Clock speed: 12 MHz
Number of transistors: 134,000

October 1985
Name of Processor: 386
Clock speed: 16 MHz
Number of transistors: 275,000

February 1987
Name of Processor: 386
Clock speed: 20 MHz
Number of transistors: 275,000

April 1989
Name of Processor: 486
Clock speed: 25 MHz
Number of transistors: 1,200,000

June 1991
Name of Processor: 486
Clock speed: 50 MHz
Number of transistors: 1,200,000

March 1993
Name of Processor: Pentium
Clock speed: 60 MHz
Number of transistors: 3.1 million

March 1994
Name of Processor: Pentium
Clock speed: 75 MHz
Number of transistors: 3.2 million

March 1995
Name of Processor: Pentium
Clock speed: 120 MHz
Number of transistors: 3.2 million

June 1995
Name of Processor: Pentium
Clock speed: 133 MHz
Number of transistors: 3.3 million

January 1996
Name of Processor: Pentium
Clock speed: 166 MHz
Number of transistors: 3.3 million

June 1996
Name of Processor: Pentium
Clock speed: 200 MHz
Number of transistors: 3.3 million

May 1997
Name of Processor: Pentium II
Clock speed: 300 MHz
Number of transistors: 3.3 million

April 1998
Name of Processor: Pentium II
Clock speed: 400 MHz
Number of transistors: 7.5 million

August 1998
Name of Processor: Pentium II
Clock speed: 450 MHz
Number of transistors: 7.5 million

August 1999
Name of Processor: Pentium III
Clock speed: 600 MHz
Number of transistors: 9.5 million

October 1999
Name of Processor: Pentium III
Clock speed: 733 MHz
Number of transistors: 28 million

January 2000
Name of Processor: Pentium III
Clock speed: 800 MHz
Number of transistors: 28 million

March 2000
Name of Processor: Pentium III
Clock speed: 1.0 GHz
Number of transistors: 28 million

November 2000
Name of Processor: Pentium 4
Clock speed: 1.5 GHz
Number of transistors: 42 million

April 2001
Name of Processor: Pentium 4
Clock speed: 1.7 GHz
Number of transistors: 42 million

Aug 2001
Name of Processor: Pentium 4
Clock speed: 2 GHz
Number of transistors: 42 million

Jan 2002
Name of Processor: Pentium 4
Clock speed: 2.2 GHz
Number of transistors: 42 million

Jun 2002
Name of Processor: Pentium 4
Clock speed: 2.53 GHz
Number of transistors: 55 million

Aug 2002
Name of Processor: Pentium 4
Clock speed: 2.8 GHz
Number of transistors: 55 million

Nov 2002
Name of Processor: Pentium 4
Clock speed: 3.0 GHz
Number of transistors: 55 million

Jun 2003
Name of Processor: Pentium 4
Clock speed: 3.2 GHz
Number of transistors: 55 million

Feb 2004
Name of Processor: Pentium 4
Clock speed: 3.4 GHz
Number of transistors: 55 million

July 2006
Name of Processor: Core 2 Duo
Level 2 cache 4 MB
Number of transistors: 253 million

Nov 2006
Name of Processor: Core 2 Extreme QX6700
Level 2 cache 8 MB
Number of transistors: 582 million

Nov 2008
Name of Processor: Core i7
Cores: 2/4 Speed  2.66–3.2 GHz
Number of transistors: 730 million

Jan 2011
Name of Processor: Core i7 “Sandy Bridge”
Cores: 2/4 Speed  1.66–3.4 GHz
Number of transistors: 995 million

Jun 2013
Name of Processor: Core i7 “Haswell”
Cores: 2/4 Speed  1.9–4.4 GHz
Number of transistors: 1400 million

3rdQ 2015
Name of Processor: Core i7 “Skylake”
Cores: 4 Speed  3.5–4.2 GHz
Number of transistors: 1350 million

2016
In early 2016 the first Russian microprocessor, the Baikal-T1, goes into mass production. More than 20 foreign companies have already placed orders, and by 2020 sales of 5 million chips are forecasted. While the Russian government wants the country to reduce reliance on foreign-made chips, the use of Russian-made chips is not yet obligatory.

2017

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 14, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — REUSE2017 — Sonics, Inc., the world’s foremost supplier of on-chip network (NoC) and power management technologies and services, upgraded its ICE-P3™ Energy Processing Unit (EPU), the flagship member of the ICE-Grain™ Family of EPU products, to add a new programmable Sequencer. The Sequencer enables designers of power-sensitive chips like systems-on-chip (SoC) and microcontrollers (MCU) to significantly improve control over both on-chip and external voltage and frequency resources to minimize energy consumption. The Sequencer combines the flexibility of resource control offered by software-based solutions with the minimized latency, area, and power provided by hardware-based solutions.

2020

The AMD Ryzen 9 3900X isn’t just AMD’s best mainstream processor right now; it’s also currently the king of all mainstream processors. It has Cores: 12 with threads 24, and a base clock speed of 3.8GHz. It has an L3 cache of 64MB.