Integrated Circuit Technology U1:A1

ITT-Tech

Microprocessor Year Transistor Count

4004 1971 2,300
8008 1972 3,500
8080 1974 4,500
8086 1978 29,000 Intel 286 1982 134,000
Intel 386 Processor 1985 275,000
Intel 486 Processor 1989 1,200,000
Intel Pentium Processor 1993 3,100,000 Intel® Pentium® Pro processor 1995 5,500,000
Intel Pentium II Processor 1997 7,500,000 Intel® Celeron® processor 1998 7,500,000
Intel Pentium III Processor 1999 9,500,000
Intel Pentium 4 Processor 2000 42,000,000
Intel® Xeon® processor 2001 42,000,000
Intel® Pentium® M processor 2003 55,000,000
Intel® Core™2 Duo processor 2006 291,000,000
Intel® Core™2 Duo processor 2008 410,000,000
Intel® Atom™ processor 2008 47,000,000
2nd generation Intel® Core 2010 1,150,000,000
Intel 9300 Tukwila Processor 2010 2,000,000,000
3rd generation Intel® Core 2012 1.400,000,000

Microprocessor Year Transistor Count

4004 1971 2,300
8008 1972 3,500
8080 1974 4,500
8086 1978 29,000 Intel 286 1982 134,000
Intel 386 Processor 1985 275,000
Intel 486 Processor 1989 1,200,000
Intel Pentium Processor 1993 3,100,000 Intel® Pentium® Pro processor 1995 5,500,000
Intel Pentium II Processor 1997 7,500,000 Intel® Celeron® processor 1998 7,500,000
Intel Pentium III Processor 1999 9,500,000
Intel Pentium 4 Processor 2000 42,000,000
Intel® Xeon® processor 2001 42,000,000
Intel® Pentium® M processor 2003 55,000,000
Intel® Core™2 Duo processor 2006 291,000,000
Intel® Core™2 Duo processor 2008 410,000,000
Intel® Atom™ processor 2008 47,000,000
2nd generation Intel® Core 2010 1,150,000,000
Intel 9300 Tukwila Processor 2010 2,000,000,000
3rd generation Intel® Core 2012 1.400,000,000

Conclusion
The growth rate is entirely reasonable given the amount of time that passes. More and more people go into the IT field every year or so, so this growth rate is a little surprising, but not completely surprising. It is actually increasing at a surprisingly faster and faster rate as time goes by. It seems like every few years the number of transistors is doubled and after about thirty year it is in the billions. At this rate we might even have one-hundred billion transistors on a single chip by 2022. Imagine the power and speed of a computer by 2022. It would probably be able to perform at least ten times better than any standard model today.

References’s http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/corporate-information/museum-transistors-to-transformations-brochure.pdf, http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_was_2_billion_transistors_were_place_on_a_single_processor_chip