I still remember the little cardboard box, foam packaging, gold pins, and slightly-earthy smell of my first Intel 486 DX2-66 CPU (pictured right). I had owned 286- and 386-powered PCs before, but they were ready-made machines; the DX2-66 would become the soul of my very first built-from-parts computer.

Almost everyone remembers their first CPU. It might not have been an Intel part — if you’re of the older, 1970s and ’80s stock it might have been a MOS 6502, or perhaps even the PDP-11’s LSI-11 — but there’s definitely something about the physical act of unpacking, preparing the operating table, and plugging in a CPU that is uniquely memorable.

Here, to celebrate the 40th birthday of the Intel 4004 — the first single-chip CPU — we’re going to take a look at the history of Intel’s microprocessors. We’ll start with the 4004 but quickly move onto the 8088, perhaps the most important chip of all time, the first Pentium, the iffy Pentium 4, the sad fate of Itanium, Sandy Bridge, and beyond. There is not a single AMD or IBM chip in this line-up — but please, don’t let that stop you from leaving a comment to tell us about your CPU history.

Intel 4004

When the 4-bit 4004 was released in 1971 Intel was actually a DRAM and SRAM specialist — and it would remain so until the late-’70s and the arrival of 8088- and 8086-powered personal computer. The 4004 is notable for being the first CPU to be crafted out of a single piece of silicon using newfangled Silicon Gate Technology, resulting in the first cheap, mass-produceable processors. For more info about the Intel 4004, see our post celebrating its 40th birthday.

Vital statistics: 2,300 transistors, 10 micron (10,000nm) feature size, 740KHz clockrate, 4-bit data word length, and the ability to address up to 4,096 bytes of memory.

Next page: 8008 & 8080, the rise of 8-bit computing