1. In 1971, the first personal computer CPU: i4004
i4004
In 1971, INTEL launched the world's first microprocessor 4004 . Not only was this the first 4-bit microprocessor used in calculators, it was also the first computer processor that individuals could afford. The 4004 contained 2,300 transistors, its functions were quite limited, and its speed was still very slow, but it was an epoch-making product after all.
2. 1978, i8086
i8086
In 1978, Intel once again led the trend and produced a 16-bit microprocessor for the first time, and named it i8086, and also produced the matching mathematical co-processor i8087. The two chips use mutually compatible instruction sets, but the i8087 instruction set adds some instructions specifically for mathematical calculations such as logarithms, exponential and trigonometric functions. , this is the famous X86 instruction set, which is still used today.
3. In 1979, i8088
i8088
In 1979, INTEL launched the 8088 chip, which was still a 16-bit microprocessor and included 29,000 transistors, a clock frequency of 4.77MHz, a 20-bit address bus, and 1MB of memory available. The 8088 internal data bus is 16 bits, the external data bus is 8 bits, and its brother 8086 is 16 bits. In 1981, the 8088 chip was first used in IBM PCs, ushering in a new era of microcomputers. It was also from the 8088 that the concept of PC (personal computer) began to develop around the world.
4. In 1979, i80286
i80286
In 1982, INTEL launched its latest epoch-making product, the i80286 chip, which was more advanced than both 8006 and 8088 A rapid development, although it is still a 16-bit structure, it contains 134,000 transistors inside the CPU, and the clock frequency has gradually increased from the initial 6MHz to 20MHz. Its internal and external data buses are both 16 bits, the address bus is 24 bits, and it can address 16MB of memory. Starting from 80286, the CPU has evolved into two working modes: real mode and protected mode.
5. In 1985, i80386
i80386
In 1985, INTEL launched the 80386 chip, which was the first 32-bit microprocessor in the 80X86 series , and the manufacturing process has also made great progress. Compared with 80286, 80386 contains 275,000 transistors inside, and the clock frequency is 12.5MHz, which was later increased to 20MHz, 25MHz, and 33MHz. The 80386's internal and external data buses are both 32 bits, and the address bus is also 32 bits, which can address up to 4GB of memory.
6. In 1989, i80486
i80486
In 1989, INTEL launched the 80486 chip. The great thing about this chip is that it actually exceeded 1 million The limit of transistors, integrating 1.2 million transistors. The clock frequency of 80486 gradually increased from 25MHz to 33MHz and 50MHz. 80486 integrates 80386, math coprocessor 80387 and an 8KB cache into one chip. It uses RISC (reduced instruction set) technology for the first time in the 80X86 series, which can execute one instruction in one clock cycle.
It also uses a burst bus method, which greatly improves the speed of data exchange with memory. As a result of these improvements, the 80486 performs 4x better than the 80386DX with the 80387 math coprocessor. ?
7. Intel Pentium processor, AMD, Cyrix? 5X86 processor
Intel? Pentium
In 1993, Intel launched a new generation of high-performance processing Instrument - Pentium. As the competition in the CPU market becomes more and more intense, INTEL feels that it can no longer let AMD and other companies use the same name to compete for its own jobs, so it filed for trademark registration because Arabic numerals cannot be used under US law. It was registered, so INTEL played a trick and registered the trademark in Latin. Pentium means "five" in Latin. The number of transistors inside the Pentium is as high as 3.1 million. The original starting frequency of Pentium was 50Mhz, and then it released 55Mhz, 60Mhz, 65Mhz, 70Mhz, 75Mhz and then jumped directly to 90Mhz, 100Mhz, 120Mhz, 133Mhz. The last product was what people dreamed of at the time and was not available to ordinary people. . Only on a machine that has it can you play VCD directly and perfectly without decompressing the card.
8. AMD?K5, Cyrix?6X86, Intel?Pentium?PRO
Cyrix?6X86
Intel?Pentium?PRO
Facing the aggressive momentum of AMD and Cyrix, Intel launched Pentium PRO at the end of 1995. This processor integrated 5.5 million transistors and improved Pentium in several aspects. In terms of processing, Pentium? PRO introduces a new instruction execution method. Its internal core is a PISC processor, so the execution speed is faster; Pentium? PRO has 3 pipelines, each pipeline reaches 14 levels, and the instruction execution speed is significantly improved; One of the bottlenecks of the computer system at that time was that the L2 cache on the motherboard could only work synchronously with the bus. Pentium PRO solved this problem by encapsulating the 256K L2 cache in the chip core and running at the same frequency as the CPU. However, because the cache technology was not yet mature at the time, and cache chips were still very expensive at the time, although the performance of Pentimu Pro was good, it was far from being able to outperform its opponents. In addition, the price was very expensive, and the number of Pentimu Pro actually sold was At least, the market life is also very short. Pentimu Pro can be said to be Intel's first failed product.
9. Intel?Pentium?MMX, AMD?K6, Cyrix?6X86MX, Cyrix?M2
Intel?Pentium?MMX
January 1997, Intel Corporation has launched the Pentium? MMX chip, which adds 57 multimedia instructions based on the X86 instruction set. These instructions are specifically used to process video, audio and image data, making the CPU more powerful in multimedia operations. Pentium? MMX also uses many new technologies. Single instruction multiple data stream SIMD technology can process multiple data in parallel with one instruction, shortening the time used by the CPU for calculations when processing video, audio, graphics and animation; the pipeline has been increased from 5 to 6 levels, and the first-level cache has been expanded It is 16K, one is used for data cache and the other is used for instruction cache, so the speed is greatly accelerated; Pentium MMX also absorbs the excellent processing technology of other CPUs, such as branch prediction technology and return stack technology, which can support MMX Increase the speed of your software by 50%. It also makes people truly aware of multimedia computers.
10. Intel Pentium II, XEON, Celeron; AMD K6-2, K6-3
Intel Pentium II
1997 May In March, Intel launched the Pentium II processor, which uses the SLOT1 architecture and is connected to the motherboard through a single-sided plug-in card (SEC). The SEC card box encapsulates the CPU core and the second-level cache together. The working speed of the second-level cache is It is half the working speed of the processor core; the processor uses the same dynamic execution technology as Pentium PRO, which can accelerate the execution of software; it is connected to the system bus through dual independent buses, which can perform multiple data exchanges and improve system performance; Pentium II also Contains MMX instruction set. Intel hoped to use the patent of SLOT1 architecture to beat AMD and others to death with this move. Unexpectedly, the Socket 7 platform entered another spring with the support of processors headed by AMD's K6-2.
11. Intel Pentium III, Celeron 2; AMD K7 Athlon
Intel Pentium III
February 17, 1999 Intel released the SLOT1 architecture Pentium III processor. The first batch of Pentium III processors used the Katmai core, with two main frequencies of 450 and 500Mhz. The biggest feature of this core is that it updated the multimedia instruction set called SSE. This instruction set adds 70 new instructions to MMX to enhance three-dimensional and floating-point applications, and is compatible with all previous MMX programs.
But to be fair, the Pentium?III with Katmai core is not attractive except for the above-mentioned SSE instruction set. It still basically retains the architecture of Pentium?II, using 0.25 micron process and 100Mhz FSB, Slot1 architecture, 512KB L2 cache (running at half the speed of the CPU), so the performance improvement is not large. However, thanks to INTEL's brand effect and strong advertising strategy, there was a great craze when Pentium III was first launched. Some people once bought the first batch of Pentium III at high prices of more than 10,000 yuan.
Intel Pentium III Coppermine
Facing the huge challenge of AMD K7 processor and the expensive price of SLOT1 platform, Intel launched Socket370 Coppermine in the second half of 1999. The new Coppermine core Pentium III processor in the FC-PGA package is manufactured using a 0.18 micron process and has a 133MHz front-side bus. Its performance greatly exceeds the old Pentium III and reaches the same level as the K7.
Intel? Celeron? 2
Seeing the popularity of the Coppermine core Pentium III, Intel began to switch to Celeron processors using this core. In mid-2000, it launched The Celeron processor with Coppermine128 core, commonly known as Celeron2, has made another leap in overclocking performance due to the switch to 0.18 process, and the overclocking range can reach 100%.
12. Intel?Tualatin?Pentium?III, Celeron?3; AMD?Tunderbird?Athlon, Duron
Intel?Tualatin?Pentium?III
Intel Improved the manufacturing process, and released the Tualatin core Pentium III-S processor manufactured with 0.13 micron process in 2000, with a maximum frequency of 1400MHz, a 512KB full-speed L2 cache, and the latest data prefetch expansion function. , this technology has also been continued on the Pentium4 processor.
Later, Celeron with Tualatin core was launched. The second-level cache was reduced to 256KB, but the performance was still very strong. It can be said to be the most competent opponent of K7.
13. Intel? Pentium? 4, Athlon? came into people's sight. The initial Pentium4 (Willamette) was manufactured using a 0.18 micron process and integrated a 256KB L2 cache internally. The starting frequency reached 1300MHz. It used the Socket 423 i850 platform with RDRAM memory to meet the bandwidth requirements of 400MHz FSB. Although people were full of hope for Pentium 4, people were shocked after the product was launched. The design of the 20-stage ultra-long assembly line raised the frequency to a new height, but the performance was seriously affected. A Tualatin core The performance of Celeron?1000MHz processor is above the Pentium4 clocked at 1500MHz. But in order to prevent Tualatin from seizing the high-end market of Pentium 4, Intel artificially self-destructed Tualatin.
Intel?Pentium?4?Prescott
Subsequently, Intel continued to upgrade Pentium?4 products and launched several series of products.
In July 2001, a new and improved Pentium4/Celeron processor (Northwood) was released. The Northwood core Pentium4 is manufactured using a 0.13 micron process, and the L2 cache is increased to 512KB, and the FSB is increased from 400MHz to 533MHz. The main frequency starts at 1.6G and reaches a maximum of 3.2G.
In June 2004, Intel launched the Pentium4 processor using the Prescott core, and gradually moved towards the LGA?775 platform. However, compared to Pentium4C, except for 3D performance (added support for SSE3 technology), other performance has not been greatly improved, and due to the use of an immature 0.09 micron process, the transistor current at high frequencies The leakage is serious, but the power consumption and heat generation have increased a lot.
In general, all Pentium?4 models, including Celeron D, have the shortcomings of high frequency, low energy, and high power consumption. They are not considered a successful processor.
14. Intel?Pentium?M
Intel?Pentium?M
In 2003, Intel released the Pentium?M processor. The Pentium?M processor is different from the improvement of desktop processors in the past, but is completely designed for mobile PCs. The powerful performance combined with advanced power-saving technology has made the Pentium?M processor undergo earth-shaking changes. Intel combines the Pentium? This allows people to see technology-led Intel again. The Pentium?M processor initially had an FSB of 400MHz and a 1M L2 cache. The later Dothan core upgraded the L2 cache to 2M.
Intel's Pentium4 has no advantage over AMD's Athlon64, and everyone has witnessed the performance of Pentium-M, so people are even more looking forward to Intel launching a desktop version. Pentium-M comes to the rescue.
15. AMD?Athlon64, INTEL?Pentium?4?EM64T
Intel?Pentium?4?EM64T
In the 64-bit era, Intel undoubtedly falls behind Later, Intel realized the seriousness of the problem, so it launched Nocona codenamed Pentium 4 EM64T in 2004. But in fact EM64T also used the Prescott core, but added the ability to process 64-bit data. ?EM64T technology has many similarities with AMD's X86-64 technology, and Intel has borrowed AMD's design ideas. However, there are still many differences between Athlon?64/Opteron and Pentium?4 with EM64T technology in some key processor technologies. For example, Intel does not integrate a memory controller and so on.
Since entering the new century, the frequency of CPUs has continued to rise, especially for INTEL's Pentium 4. The highest frequency of Prescott? has reached 3.8G. However, chip design engineers found that due to limitations of processes, materials, heat generation and other factors, the frequency of the CPU cannot be increased endlessly. But how to continue to improve the performance of the CPU? Engineers came up with a way to integrate two cores into one CPU. In 2005, Intel and AMD successively launched dual-core CPUs, and computer CPUs entered the dual-core era.
16. Intel? Pentium? D, AMD? Athlon? 64? D also belongs to the NetBurst architecture and consists of two separate CPU cores. Although the product design is not as good as AMD's native dual-core design, and the performance gap is also obvious, Pentium D still provides good multi-tasking performance, excellent overclocking performance and a very competitive price. Pentium?D core frequency ranges from 2.66G to 3.73G and can be overclocked to 4.26G. It is Intel's CPU with the highest core frequency.
17. Intel Core 2, Pentium Dual Core, AMD Phenom
Intel Core 2
In 2006, INTEL Finally gave up the Netburst architecture and launched the Core?2 microarchitecture, which once again shocked the industry. This time Intel is no longer focusing on the frequency of the processor, but on the execution efficiency of the processor. Although the frequency of the new architecture processor is not high, its performance is enough to return it to the throne of the processor performance king.
The first Core 2 Duo processor has 167 million transistors, is based on a 65nm process, has a 4M L2 cache, and a front-side bus frequency of 1,066MHz. Although the core frequencies of the low-end models of Core 2 Duo are only 1.86GHz and 2.13GHz (E6300 E6400), their performance is very attractive. Afterwards, the Core 2 production process was upgraded to 45nm, and the representative product is Penryn. The number of transistors in the quad-core Penryn has reached 820 million, and the core frequency has reached 3.2GHz.
Pentium? Dual-core
In 2007, INTEL launched the Pentium dual-core processor. You may feel a little strange when you see the name Pentium. Although the name is a bit confusing, Pentium The dual-core processor is based on the Core architecture, not the early Pentium, and has nothing to do with Pentium?D. The first Pentium dual-core processor was actually launched for the notebook computer market, and later a desktop version was launched. Its purpose is to fill the market gap between Celeron? and Core?2 processors.
18. Intel?Core?i7, AMD?Phenom?II
Core?i7
In 2008, INTEL launched the Core?i7 processor, giving AMD This has brought greater pressure, because Core?i7 has become the new leader of the Intel camp. Core i7 has many improvements compared with the previous generation product Core 2. The most important changes are reflected in the following aspects: First, Core i7 is Intel's first native 4-core processor and supports hyper-threading technology. ; Second, it adopts the new LGA1366 interface; third, it introduces QPI (Quick Direct Channel) bus technology, and also integrates a three-channel DDR3 memory controller inside the CPU.
21. Second generation Core?i3/i5/i7
Core?i5
In June 2010, Intel released another revolutionary processor ——Second generation i3/i5/i7. The second generation i3/i5/i7 are all based on the new Sandy Bridge microarchitecture. Compared with the first generation products, it mainly brings five important innovations:
1) Adopts the new 32nm Sandy Bridge microarchitecture. , lower power consumption and stronger performance.
2) Built-in high-performance GPU (core graphics card), with stronger video encoding and graphics performance.
3) Turbo acceleration technology 2.0, smarter and more efficient.
4) Introducing a new ring architecture, bringing higher bandwidth and lower latency.
5) The new AVX and AES instruction sets strengthen floating point operations and encryption and decryption operations.
Many friends may not know the difference between Core i3, i5 and i7. In fact, i7 is positioned as high-end, i5 is positioned as mid-range, and i3 is positioned as low-end. i7 and i5 are prepared for players who have higher system performance requirements. These players generally have independent graphics instead of integrated graphics, so they do not have built-in graphics. ;i3 is prepared for users who watch high-definition or have low performance requirements. These people do not need a good graphics card. Integration is enough and can save the budget. In the past, they used integrated graphics motherboards, but for the first time, Intel The i3 integrates the GPU (display chip) without the need for motherboard integration, which shows that the technology has greatly improved.
The main differences between these three processors are as follows:
Core i7 - number of cores: 4 or 6; number of threads: 8 or 12; cache: 8M or 12M; Supports Turbo Boost; no built-in graphics card
Core i5 - Number of cores: 2 or 4; Number of threads: 4; Cache: 4M or 8M; Supports Turbo Boost; Has built-in graphics card (i5? 750 series without graphics card)
Core i3 - number of cores: 2; number of threads: 4; cache: 4M; does not support Turbo acceleration; has built-in graphics card
What is Core What about frequency acceleration technology?
When a running program is started, the processor will automatically accelerate to the appropriate frequency, and the original running speed will be increased by ?10%~20%? to ensure that the program runs smoothly; when dealing with complex applications, processing The processor can automatically increase the operating frequency to speed up, and easily perform multi-tasking with higher performance requirements; when switching tasks, if only the memory and hard disk are doing the main work, the processor will immediately be in a power-saving state. This not only ensures the effective use of energy, but also greatly increases the program speed.
To give a simple example, if a game or software only uses one core, Turbo Boost technology will automatically shut down the other three cores and increase the frequency of the core running the game or software. That is automatic overclocking.
Concluding remarks:
It has been 40 years since INTEL initially released the i4004 CPU. The manufacturing process and performance of the CPU have undergone earth-shaking changes. This is a problem among CPU manufacturers. It is the technological competition that has led to the continuous improvement of CPU performance. We should pay the highest respect to those great engineers who design and manufacture processors. At this moment, there is no competition between different brands, only the common pursuit of technology. It is competition that has given birth to generations of excellent products and made Moore's Law continue to be effective.
Personal collection, sourced from the Internet.