The Birth, Evolution and Future of the Microprocessor

The world's first microprocessor, the 4004, was co-developed by Busicom, a Japanese manufacturer of calculators, and Intel, a U.S. manufacturer of semiconductors. During the development of a general-purpose LSI for not only desktop calculators but also other business machines, originally based on a decimal computer with a stored program method, a basic architecture of 4004 was developed in August 1969; a concrete plan for the 4004 system was finalized in December 1969; and the first microprocessor was successfully developed in March 1971. Microprocessors, which became the "technology to open up a new era," brought two outstanding impacts, "power of intelligence" and "power of computing". First, microprocessors opened up a new "era of programming" through replacing with software, the hardwired logic based on IC's of the former "era of logic". At the same time, microprocessors allowed young engineers access to "power of computing" for the creative development of personal computers and computer games, which in turn led to growth in the software industry, and paved the way to the development of high-performance microprocessors. Development engineers involved in creative development can be likened to explorers who go into unmapped territory without a compass, having hope for success and fear of failure. Also, an engineer must be armed with the firm belief that his mission is nothing but development, and must be determined to go his own way, never following another's tracks. In this talk, the birth, evolution and future of Microprocessor will be described. 4004 performance was only 0.06MIPS with 2,238 transistors and 750 KHz operating frequency. Microprocessors evolved from 4 bit to 64 bit microprocessors, introducing computer technologies such as pipeline, super-pipeline, super-scalar, VLIW, cache memory, and virtual memory system. Now, it is possible to integrate 16 sets of microprocessor with 64GB of memory on the board. In 20th century, microprocessors were used for increasing "power of intelligence". In 21st century, microprocessors will evolve into "tool to bring forth wisdom" for all mankind.