The Revolution Begins
Throughout history, new and improved technologies have transformed the human experience. In the 20th century, the pace of change sped up radically as we entered the computing age. For nearly 40 years Intel innovations have continuously created new possibilities in the lives of people around the world.
1975 The Altair 8800 microcomputer, based on the Intel® 8080 microprocessor, was the first successful home or personal computer.

1972 The Intel® 4004 processor, Intel’s first microprocessor, powered the Busicom calculator and paved the way for the personal computer.

1994 Intel chips powered almost 75 percent of all desktop computers. 1976 An operator in an early bunnysuit shows how a 4-inch wafer is prepared for a positive acid spin.

1982 Within 6 years of its release, an estimated 15 million 286-based personal computers were installed around the world.

2001 The Itanium® processor is the first in a family of 64-bit products from Intel and is designed for high-end, enterprise-class servers and workstations.

2005 Dual-core technology was introduced.

The Revolution Continues
2006 Intel launched four processors for servers under the Xeon 5300 brand, and another processor under the Core 2 Extreme series for high performance computing. These "quad-core" processors show improved performance over others with just one or two processing cores.

1995 Released in the fall of 1995, the Intel® Pentium® Pro processor was designed to fuel 32-bit server and workstation applications, enabling fast computer-aided design, mechanical engineering and scientific computation.

Intel continues to deliver on the promise of Moore’s Law with the introduction of powerful multi-core technologies, transforming the way we live, work, and play once again.

1981 The Intel® 8088 microprocessor was selected to power the IBM PC.

1989 The National Academy of Engineering named the microprocessor one of ten outstanding engineering achievements for the advancement of human welfare.

1998 The Intel® Pentium II Xeon processors feature technical innovations specifically designed for workstations and servers that utilize demanding business applications.

2003 Intel® Centrino® mobile technology brought high performance, enhanced battery life, and integrated WLAN capability to thinner, lighter PCs.

2007 In the second half of 2007, Intel began production of the next generation Intel® Core™2 and Xeon processor families based on 45-nanometer (nm) Hi-k metal gate silicon technology.

Moore’s Law
In 1965, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would double about every two years. Since then, Moore’s Law has fueled a technology revolution as Intel has exponentially increased the number of transistors integrated into it processors for greater performance and energy efficiency.
Note: Number of transistors is an approximate number.

Intel® 4004 processor Introduced 1971 Initial clock speed

Intel® 8008 processor Introduced 1972 Initial clock speed

Intel® 8080 processor Introduced 1974 Initial clock speed

Intel® 8086 processor Introduced 1978 Initial clock speed

Intel® 8088 processor Introduced 1979 Initial clock speed

Intel® 286 processor Introduced 1982 Initial clock speed

Intel386™ processor Introduced 1985 Initial clock speed

Intel486™ processor Introduced 1989 Initial clock speed

Intel® Pentium® processor Introduced 1993 Initial clock speed

Intel® Pentium® Pro processor Introduced 1995 Initial clock speed

108 KHz 2,300 10µ
Number of transistors

Manufacturing technology

500-800 KHz 3,500 10µ
Number of transistors Manufacturing technology

2 MHz 4,500 6µ

Number of transistors

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5 MHz 29,000 3µ

Number of transistors

Manufacturing technology

5 MHz 29,000 3µ

Number of transistors

Manufacturing technology

6 MHz 134,000 1.5µ
Number of transistors

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16 MHz 275,000 1.5µ
Number of transistors

Manufacturing technology

25 MHz 1,200,000 1µ
Number of transistors Manufacturing technology

66 MHz 3,100,000 0.8µ
Number of transistors Manufacturing technology

200 MHz 5,500,000 0.6µ
Number of transistors Manufacturing technology

Intel® Pentium® II processor Intel® Pentium II Xeon® processor Introduced 1997 Initial clock speed

Intel® Pentium® III processor Intel® Pentium® III Xeon® processor Introduced 1999 Initial clock speed

300 MHz 7,500,000 0.25µ
Number of transistors Manufacturing technology
The Intel® Pentium® II processor’s significant performance improvement over previous Intel-Architecture processors was based on the seamless combination of the P6 microarchitecture and Intel MMX media enhancement technology.

500 MHz 9,500,000 0.18µ
Number of transistors Manufacturing technology
The Intel® Pentium® III processor executed Internet Streaming SIMD Extensions, extended the concept of processor identification and utilized multiple low-power states to conserve power during idle times.

Intel® Pentium® 4 processor Introduced 2000 Intel® Xeon® processor Introduced 2001 Initial clock speed

Intel® Pentium® M processor Introduced - 2002 Initial Clock Speed

Intel® Itanium® 2 processor Introduced 2002 Initial clock speed

Intel® Pentium® D processor Introduced 2005 Initial clock speed

1.5 GHz 42,000,000 0.18µ
Number of transistors Manufacturing technology
The Intel® Pentium® 4 processor ushers in the advent of the nanotechnology age.

1.7 GHz 55,000,000 90nm
Number of transistors Manufacturing technology

1 GHz 220,000,000 0.13µ
Number of transistors Manufacturing technology

3.2 GHz 291,000,000 65nm
Number of transistors Manufacturing technology

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® processor Introduced 2006 Initial clock speed

Dual-Core Intel® Itanium® 2 processor 9000 series Introduced 2006 Initial clock speed

2.93 GHz 291,000,000 65nm
Number of transistors Manufacturing technology
Intel® Core™2 Duo processor optimizes mobile microarchitecture of the Intel® Pentium® M processor and enhanced it with many microarchitecture innovations. Intel® Centrino® Pro and Intel® vPro™ processor technology provide excellent performance from the Dual-Core Intel® Core™2 Duo processor.

1.66 GHz 1,720,000,000 90nm
Number of transistors Manufacturing technology

Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor Quad-Core Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor Introduced 2006 Intel® Core™2 Quad processors Introduced 2007 Initial clock speed

Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor (Penryn) Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® processor (Penryn) Quad-Core Intel® Core™2 Extreme processor (Penryn) Introduced 2007 Initial clock speed

2.66 GHz 582,000,000 65nm
Number of transistors Manufacturing technology
The unprecedented performance of the Intel® Core™2 Quad processor is made possible by each of the four complete execution cores delivering the full power of Intel Core microarchitecture. The Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor provides 50 percent greater performance than industryleading Dual-Core Intel® Xeon® processor in the same power envelope. The quad-core-based servers enable more applications to run with a smaller footprint.

GHz 820,000,000 45nm 45nm
Number of transistors Manufacturing Technology Manufacturing technology
Intel’s next generation Intel® Core™2 processor family, codenamed "Penryn", contains industry-leading microarchitecture enhancements. Further, new SSE4 instructions for improved video, imaging, and 3D content performance and new power management features will extend “Penryn” processor family leadership in performance and energy efficiency.

The groundbreaking Intel® 4004 processor was introduced with the same computing power as ENIAC.

The Intel® 8008 processor was twice as powerful as the Intel® 4004 processor.

The Intel® 8080 processor made video games and home computers possible.

The Intel® 8086 processor was the first 16 bit processor and delivered about ten times the performance of its predecessors.

A pivotal sale to IBM's new personal computer division made the Intel® 8088 processor the brains of IBM's new hit product--the IBM PC.

The Intel® 286 was the first Intel processor that could run all the software written for its predecessor.

The Intel386™ processor could run multiple software programs at once and featured 275,000 transistors—more than 100 times as many as the original Intel® 4004.

The Intel486™ introduced the integrated floating point unit. This generation of computers really allowed users to go from a command level computer into point and click computing.

The Intel® Pentium® processor, executing 112 million commands per second, allowed computers to more easily incorporate "real world" data such as speech, sound, handwriting and photographic images.

The Pentium® Pro processor delivered more performance than previous generation processors through an innovation called Dynamic Execution. This made possible the advanced 3D visualization and interactive capabilities.

The Intel® Pentium® M processor, the Intel® 855 chipset family, and the Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 network connection are the three components of Intel® Centrino® processor technology. Intel® Centrino® processor technology was designed specifically for portable computing.

The Intel® Itanium® 2 processor is the successor of the first Itanium processor. The architecture is based on Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (EPIC). It is theoretically capable of performing roughly 8 times more work per clock cycle than other CISC and RISC architectures.

The Intel® Pentium® D processor features the first desktop duel-core design with two complete processor cores, that each run at the same speed, in one physical package.

Dual-Core Intel® Itanium® 2 processor 9000 series outperforms the earlier, single-core version of the Itanium 2 processors. With more than 1.7 billion transistors and with two execution cores, these processors double the performance of previous Itanium processors while reducing average power consumption.