What is the Intel 4004?
The Intel 4004 was the first microprocessor. It was the world's first commercially available microprocessor, which revolutionized computing. The 4-bit processor had 2,300 transistors, which helped paved the way for more advanced central processing units like the Intel 8008 and 8080. The Intel 4004 helped mark the beginning of the digital age.
This passage from the Intel website discusses how the Japanese company Busicom asked Intel to develop a 12-chip set for a desktop calculator. At the time, Intel mainly was focused on memory chips, but it accepted said contract for business growth. The intel engineer Ted Hoff found that Busicom's design was too complex and proposed a new approach to it, which led to the creation of the Intel 4004.
"Big Iron" informs us about the original use of Intel's 4004, the Busicom calculator. The 4004 was built with 2,300 transistors, it supported 46 8-bit instructions. Within the next 27 years the microprocessor expanded extremely fast, when this was published in 1998 Intel released the Pentium II Xeon Processor which had 7.5 million transistors. It could run four times faster than the Intel 4004.
These three sources have added context to the Intel Corporation. They explained the microprocessors that came after the Intel 4004 and how they were used. They add what could come in the near future (2000s) and what to expect with personal computers. They also explain the changes in the transistors in the microchips.
This block diagram visually shows how the Intel 4004 microprocessor works internally. It shows how data moves between the different parts of the processor, how instructions are processed, and how the chip manages memory and calculations. A couple of the key components include the accumulator, which stores temporary results, and the instruction decoder, which is for understanding commands.
This talks about how Intel offers 4-bit 0.1MHz 4004 microprocessors, which was the "first computer on a chip" for $300.
This is a picture of the 4004 instruction set. The 4004 has 16 instruction types, as well as 14 general instructions. A couple of those 14 are, register instructions and conditional and unconditional jumps. It also goes further into detail on what the 4004 has to offer.