Happy 40th birthday to the Intel 4004 CPU

The Intel 4004, the first commercially available microprocessor, is 40 years old today. While not many people will have heard of it, the 4004 is still one of the most significant technology launches of all time.

First advertised in the 15 November, 1971 edition of Electronic News, the 4004 was designed for use in a Busicom 141-PF calculator. The importance of microprocessors/CPUs in modern computing cannot be overstated. Simply put; the 4004 changed the way people thought about computers and kick-started a technological revolution that is still alive today.

The numbers make for interesting reading. Approximately the size of a fingernail, the 4004 gave the same computing power as the first electronic computer built in 1946. That computer filled in an entire room.

In 1971 the Intel 4004 processor held 2,300 transistors. In 2010, an Intel Core processor held 560 million transistors. The 4004 had a maximum CPU clock rate of 740 KHz; by comparison the PC I'm writing this on runs at 3.33 GHz.

From small seeds.

You can read more about the Intel 4004, including images and the original instruction manual and schematics, on the Intel Museum website.