Intel Celebrates 40th Anniversary of First CPU: 4004

According to its Wikipedia article, the first public mention of the first-ever complete design CPU occurred on November 15, 1971, making today its 40th anniversary. That chip was Intel’s 4004, sporting a 4-bit architecture, a 16-pin package (compare that to Sandy Bridge-E’s 2011 pins) and a blazing-fast speed of 0.740MHz. Sure, paltry by today’s standards, but back then, the 4004 was ground-breaking.

To see the 4004 hit the consumer market, designers Federico Faggin and Ted Hoff had to overcome challenges in making an all-in-one chip, and one that was mass-producible. Once those challenges were overcome, the first purpose the 4004 saw was to act as the computing brain in a calculator. A “simple” chip for a simple purpose, but its impact on the industry as it stands today is impossible to ignore.

Intel has launched a special site to help celebrate the occasion, giving us a timeline of Intel’s happenings from 1968 to present day and also providing a large collection of videos to help fill you in on some history. One video I’d recommend checking out is the quick interview with Federico Faggin, who was essentially the spearhead in getting 4004’s main challenges overcome and the product out the door.

You can click the URL below for the official celebration page, but I’d quicker recommend going to the press room where everything is organized better – and where there’s more content to be had in general.