|Microprocessor |Year of Introduction |Transistors |
|4004 |1971 |2,300 |
|8008 |1972 |2,500 |
|8080 |1974 |4,500 |
|8085 |1976 |6,500 |
|8086 |1978 |29,000 |
|8088 |1979 |29,000 |
|Intel186 |1982 |55,000 |
|Intel286 |1982 |134,000 |
|Intel386 processor |1985 |275,000 |
|Intel486 processor |1989 |1,200,000 |
|Intel Pentium Processor |1993 |3,100,000 |
|Intel Pentium Pro |1995 |5,500,000 |
|Intel Pentium II Processor |1997 |7,500,000 |
|Intel Pentium III Processor |1999 |9,500,000 |
|Intel Pentium 4 Processor |2000 |42,000,000 |
|Intel Itanium processor |2001 |25,000,000 |
|Intel Itanium 2 McKinley |2002 |220,000,000 |
|Intel Itanium 2 processor |2003 |220,000,000 |
|Intel Itanium 2 Madison |2003 |410,000,000 |
|Intel Itanium 2 processor |2004 |592,000,000 |
|(9MB cache) | | |
|Intel Core 2 Duo |2006 |291,000,000 |
|Intel Dual-Core Itanium 2 |2006 |1,700,000,000 |
|Intel Atom |2008 |47,000,000 |
|Intel Core i7 |2008 |731,000,000 |
|Intel Six-Core Xeon 7400 |2008 |1,900,000,000 |
|Intel Six-Core Core i7 |2010 |1,170,000,000 |
|Intel Quad-Core Itanium Tukwila |2010 |2,000,000,000 |
|8-Core Xeon Nehalem-EX |2010 |2,300,000,000 |
|Six-Core Core i7/8-Core Xeon E5 |2011 |2,270,000,000 |
|Quad-Core + GPU Core i7 |2011 |1,600,000,000 |
|10-Core Xeon Westmere-EX |2011 |2,600,000,000 |
|Quad-Core + GPU Core i7 |2012 |1,400,000,000 |
|8-Core Itanium Poulson |2012 |3,100,000,000 |
|62-Core Xeon Phi |2012 |5,000,000,000 |
| | | |

I have identified the processor model and year when two billion transistors were placed on a single chip. The model is the Intel Quad-Core Itanium Tukwila 9300 and it was released in 2010.

According to Moore’s Law the number of transistors should double every 18 months. From what I have found this seems to be true and continues to be to this day.

I believe the growth is reasonable for today’s applications

In my opinion the growth or the transistors is surprisingly fast.

I predict we can hit 100 billion transistors within the next 8 to 10yrs and one trillion in the next 20yrs.

Sources

(n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2014, from http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/events/moores_law_40th/

(n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2014, from https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1hRaR4o4z9nITGpAQDDoHRWa3fbmxuteHl6RPEhQ#rows:id=1