A CPU History

1
A CPU History

• By Daniel Pedroza

2
The First CPU

• The first cpu was created on November, 1971, by
  intel a company who introduced the world's first
  single chip microprocessor for a calculator.

3
The Groovy Seventies

• The seventies were a good time for intel, mostly
  because they were the first players in the game.
  Motorola jumped in rapidly thereafter, however,
  and brought out the ubiquitous 6800 and later the
  even more important 68000 during the same
  timeframe. Even today, however, 808x CPUs are
  more popular in embedded systems than the more
  powerful Motorola 68000, if for no other reason
  than inertia. Intel got there first, and got the
  ball rolling. A great deal of their installed
  base comes from the fact that the IBM PC and
  every clone of it thereafter carried an intel
  CPU.
• IBM also invented the first RISC(reduced
  instruction set computer) CPU during this decade
  (barely). They began work on it way back in 1975.
  That chip was never released but concepts in its
  design made it all the way into the PowerPC by
  way of ROMP and then POWER.

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• 1976 TMS9900 (TI) first 16 bit microprocessor.
  1976 Z80 (Zilog) the z80's instruction set is a
  superset of the Intel 8080. It later becomes one
  of the most ubiquitous embedded processors of all
  time. The de facto standard for computers running
  CP/M. Also featured in the radio shack TRS-80 and
  the Nintendo game boy,and others. 1978 8086
  (Intel) used (later) in the IBM PC. Also, the
  complementary 8087 math coprocessor. 1979 801
  (IBM) first RISC CPU made. Never commercialized.
  1979 Z8000 (Zilog) 16 bit chip. 1979 MC68000
  (Motorola) 16 bit processor with 24 bit
  addressing.

• 1971 4004 (Intel) used in the Unicom calculator.
  First microprocessor. 4 bits, 2300 transistors,
  740 kHz, 0.06 MIPS. 1975 MC6501 (MOS)
  pin-compatible with Motorola MC6800, leading to a
  lawsuit against MOS. 1976 8085 (Intel) improved
  version of the 8080 Uses only 5V, where 8080
  needs several voltages, and with additional
  instructions as well.

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Intel 8080
The intel 8080
Mc6800
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(No Transcript)
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The Eighties

• The 1980s, the digital age. This is the time when
  everything exploded. All the chips we love (and
  love to hate) were born here -- the 286 (possibly
  Intel's most crippled chip in its time) The
  68020 which was not only a big step forward from
  the 68000 for its instruction set, but also for
  being the first 32 bit processor The ARM CPUs
  (including the first marketed RISC processor)
  The 386 and 486 which brought PCs into the 32 bit
  era As well as RISC products from sun (sparc),
  MIPS (R3000), and IBM (ROMP).

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• 1981 80186 and 80188 (Intel) x86-compatible,
  primarily used in embedded systems as they
  contain DMA and timer circuits.
• 1984 MC68020 (Motorola) the first true 32-bit
  microprocessor.
• 1984 V20 and V30 (NEC) first clones of Intel's
  8088 and 8086,
• 1985 ARM1 and ARM2 (acorn) ARM2 was the first
  commercially available RISC processor. ARM1 is
  also risks, but never made it to market. 1985
  R2000 (MIPS) first commercially available MIPS
  processor.
• 1986 ROMP (IBM) RISC processor used in the IBM
  RT PC, a business system which failed in part
  because of its name ("personal computer").
  Successor of IBM 801, predecessor of IBM POWER
  architecture which eventually lead to PowerPC.

• 1987 Sparc (sun and LSI logic) Sparc is actually
  a U Berkeley-derived design for a truly RISC
  processor, IE one which executes one operation
  per cycle. The first Sparc CPUs rolled out in
  1987 to replace the 68000-family CPUs sun was
  previously using to build their systems.
• 1987 MC68030 (Motorola) 32 bit processor with
  32 bit address bus, used in Macintosh, sun, and
  amigo computers (among many others.)
• 1988 80386SX (Intel) cheaper alternative to than
  386DX, used 16 bit time-multiplexed bus to
  perform 32 bit data transfers (in 2 cycles) at a
  cost in memory bandwidth. (June 16, 1988)

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The Nineties

• This is where home computers began to really have
  the "juice" to wow people. The MIPS R4000 fueled
  high-end Unix workstations which were busy making
  movies. IBM and Motorola got together and with
  input from apple began work on and realized their
  new PowerPC architecture. Intel brought out the
  Pentium followed by the Pentium MMX, Pentium 2,
  and the Pentium 3, and all were huge hits.
• AMD got into the high-power game with several
  RISC CPUs which would interpret x86 instructions
  K5, K6, and Athlon. The Athlon got them into a
  serious battle with intel over CPU supremacy,
  which pretty much brings us to our current
  situation - everyone making a significant CPU
  today has enough power to stay in the race.

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• 1990 RS6000 (IBM) POWER architecture chip,
  predecessor of PowerPC CPU. Partitioned RISC
  design lends itself to superscalar processing -
  this is the first superscalar processor, capable
  of executing multiple instructions at once.
• 1991 am386 (AMD) breaks the intel 32 bit x86
  monopoly.
• 1991 R4000 (MIPS) first 64 bit processor.
• 1991 486SX (intel) processor with no onboard
  FPU(floating point unit). Introduced as a
  low-cost budget processor Originals are actually
  remarked 486DX chips with faulty FPUs disabled.
  (April 22, 1991)

• 1992 MCP601 (IBM) first-generation PowerPC chip,
  
• 1992 alpha 21064 (digital) 64 bit processor,
  considered to be one of the fastest chips for
  floating point mathematics.
• 1993 Pentium P54C (intel) intel begins to use
  some RISC style processing. First superscalar
  x86-family processor.

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• 1993 PowerPC 603 (IBM and Motorola) drops some
  POWER architecture features in the 601, runs
  significantly faster.
• 1994 PowerPC 604 and 620 (IBM). 620 is the first
  64 bit implementation of PowerPC (as opposed to
  POWER). 1994 R8000 (MIPS) first superscalar
  MIPS design.

• 1995 Pentium pro (intel) A great deal of added
  cache. Sets the stage for the Pentium 2 (whose
  design is largely based on the PPro) and Pentium
  MMX (P55C).
• 1995 SuperSparc 2 (sun)
• 1995 UltraSparc (sun) 64-bit sparc processor.
• 1995 StrongARM (armdigital) RISC chip intended
  for embedded systems, somewhat based on the ARM
  architecture. Owned by digital, who got bought by
  Compaq, who sold the StrongARM to intel (the
  current owner).

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• 1996 K5 (AMD) AMD's first internally-RISC
  x86-compatible processor. Basically a 486 on
  steroids, and intended to compete with the
  Pentium. (March 27, 1996)
• 1997 Pentium 2 (intel) based on the Pentium
  pro, and carrying the MMX features of the P55C.
  First x86 processor on a module, with L2 cache on
  the PC board. (All former x86 CPUs utilize L2
  cache on the motherboard.)
• 1997 K6 (AMD) first Pentium 2 competitor, based
  on a RISC design with an x86 translation layer.
  Suffers due to slow and incompatible (24 as
  opposed to 32 bit) FPU. (April 2, 1997)
• 1998 Pentium 2 Xeon (intel) where the p2's L2
  cache runs at half speed, the Xeon's runs at full
  speed, and is available from 512kb to 8mb.

• 1999 Celeron (intel) bargain version of the
  Pentium 2. Early versions have no L2 cache Later
  versions have a reduced amount of L2 (128kb)
  which runs at full speed rather than the p2's
  half speed.
• 1999 Pentium 3 (intel) based on the p2's
  design, new core. Substantially faster than P2.
  Adds additional SIMD extensions beyond MMX.
• 1999 Athlon (AMD) AMD's competitor to Pentium
  2. Features 100mhz DDR bus for three times the
  bus bandwidth of intel CPUs (compared to
  then-current 66mhz Pentium 2 bus.) Intel Pentium
  chipsets later feature 100mhz bus (non-DDR.)
• 1999 K6-3 (AMD) last revision in K6 line,
  improves speed of multimedia functions and makes
  new clock rates available.

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The Current Now

• In the 21st century, the race continues. AMD and
  intel have essentially equivalent juggernauts
  which for the first time (beginning in the 90s
  with the coexistence of Pentium 3 and Athlon)
  compete directly and strongly with one another.
  Meanwhile, both companies have 64 bit designs
  with instruction sets based on x86, and the
  outcome of that match is as unclear as the
  outcome of Pentium 4 vs. Athlon XP.
• Meanwhile everyone else has already gone 64 bit
  (MIPS, sparc) or is about to go 64 bit (PowerPC).
  It looks like the 21st century will be the age of
  the quad word.

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• 2000 Pentium 4 (intel) less efficient than P3
  cycle for cycle, with a harsher penalty for
  incorrect branch prediction (due to a longer
  pipeline
• But supports much higher clock rates partly due
  to finer (.18 micron) process and partly due to
  the longer pipeline. Bus speeds increase to as
  much as 533mhz in order to compete with Athlon.
• 2000 Athlon XP and Athlon MP (AMD) full speed
  L2 cache, and a new 133mhz DDR bus (equivalent to
  266mhz.) MP is "designed" for multiprocessor use.
  
• 2000 Crusoe TM5400 and TM5600 (Transmeta).
  Crusoe is a "code-morphing" processor which uses
  dynamic JIT recompilation to run code designed
  for other processors, though to date only the
  intel x86 instruction set is supported.

• 2001 itanium (intel) Intel's first 64 bit CPU.
  Low clock rates (through 2002) but true 64 bit.
• Explicitly parallel instruction computing
  (EPIC). Uses a new instruction set, IA-64, which
  not is based on x86. Extremely poor at emulating
  x86.
• 2002 itanium 2 (intel) supports higher clock
  rates than itanium and has a shorter pipeline to
  reduce the cost of a bad branch prediction.
  2002 scale (intel) StrongARM II. Tight, fast
  embedded processor which uses the ARM instruction
  set. Based on StrongARM, which was bought from
  Compaq
• 2002 R16000 (SGI) MIPS 4 architecture, 64KB L1
  and 4MB L2 cache, and with out-of-order execution
  (OoO.)

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• 2003 Opteron/Athlon 64 (AMD) AMD's x86-64
  processors, collectively code named "hammer".
  Opteron has more cache and two hyper transport
  (HT) links per CPU, allowing for glue-less SMP
  Athlon 64 has one. A mobile (low power) version
  is also available. There are a number of
  revisions, starting with "ClawHammer" (130nm)
  memory controller is on-die, so hypertransport
  only has to handle communication with
  peripherals, and memory attached to other CPUs.
  (NUMA architecture.)
• 2003 PowerPC 9xx/g5 (IBM) 64 bit PowerPC
  processor. The G5 in the power Macintosh is the
  970.

• 2003 Pentium M (Intel) also Centrino. Formerly
  code-named Banias, this is an advanced low-power
  rehash of the Pentium 3 processor, more efficient
  than Pentium 4. Intel announced that multi-core
  Pentium M processors would take over for the P4,
  whose scalability is running out.
• 2004 Athlon XP-M (AMD) low-power version of the
  Athlon XP processor, the slowest (2700) part
  draws 35W with 512kb L2 cache.
• 2005 Athlon 64 X2 (AMD) first dual-core 64 bit
  desktop processor.

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Sources

• http//everything2.com/index.pl?node_id1362904
• http//www.commodore.ca/history/people/chuck_peddl
  e/Intel_4004_worlds_first_microprocessor.gif
• Great microprocessors of the past and present.
  John Bayko, march 2002. (Http//www3.sk.sympatico.
  Ca/jbayko/cpu.Html)