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The Intel 4004, a 4-bit central processing unit (CPU) released by Intel Corp. in 1971, is widely considered to be the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor.• The 4004 employed a silicon NMOS technology. While often credited with jump-starting the microprocessor and microcomputer industries, other integrated circuit manufacturers were already developing similar devices independently at the time. As for the 4004 itself, it was largely a commercial failure and had very little impact on the electronics industry as a whole.
History and description The 4004 was released in 16-pin CERDIP packaging on November 15th, 1971. The 4004 is the first computer processor designed and manufactured by chip maker Intel, which previously made semiconductor memory chips. The chief designers of the chip were Ted Hoff and Federico Faggin of Intel and Masatoshi Shima of Busicom (later of ZiLOG). Originally designed for the Japanese company Busicom to be used in their line of calculators (instead of the complex special purpose calculator chipset that Busicom had designed themselves and brought to Intel to have made, which Intel determined was too complex to make with the technology they had at the time), the 4004 was also provided with a family of custom support chips (e.g., each "Program ROM" internally latched for its own use the 4004's 12-bit program address, which allowed 4 KB memory access from the 4-bit address bus if all 16 ROMs were installed). The 4004 circuit was built of 2,300 transistors, and was followed the next year by the first ever 8-bit microprocessor, the 3,300 transistor 8008 (and the 4040, a revised 4004). As its fourth entry in the microprocessor market, Intel released the CPU that started the microcomputer revolution — the 8080. Technical specifications Microarchitecture and pinout Click the pictures to view the full-size versions. Custom support chips Collectability The Intel 4004, naturally, is one of world's most sought-after collectable/antique chips. Of highest value are 4004s that are gold and white, with visible so called 'grey traces' on the white portion (the original package type). As of 2006, such chips reached around US$1000 each on eBay. The slightly less valuable white and gold chips without grey traces typically reach $300 to $500. Those chips without a 'date code' underneath are earlier versions, and therefore worth slightly more. Other valuable chips include the Intel 4040. Notes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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