Mondo Knows Facts
The Intel 4004 was the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor
Released in 1971, the 4-bit processor contained 2,300 transistors on a single piece of silicon
Designed by Federico Faggin, Ted Hoff, and Stanley Mazor, the Intel 4004 was developed initially for a Japanese desktop calculator company. It brought the central processing unit onto a single integrated circuit operating at 740 kilohertz. The chip established the foundation for modern general-purpose microprocessors.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
ARM processors power billions of mobile phones due to low power consumptionAcorn RISC Machine architecture reduced instruction complexity to maximize energy efficiencyThe first commercial hard disk stored five megabytes of dataThe IBM 350 disk storage unit used fifty magnetic platters each measuring twenty inches acrossGrace Hopper created the first compiler for a programming languageIn 1952 Grace Hopper developed A-0 to translate human-readable code into computer machine instructionsThe term computer bug was popularized by a real mothEngineers found a moth trapped in a relay of the Harvard Mark II computer in 1947The QWERTY keyboard layout was created to prevent mechanical typewriter jamsChristopher Latham Sholes arranged keys in 1873 to separate frequently used letter combinationsThe first mobile phone call was placed in New York City in 1973Motorola engineer Martin Cooper called his rival at Bell Labs using a portable prototype phone
Tags: intel, microprocessor, silicon
The Intel 4004 was the world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Released in 1971, the 4-bit processor contained 2,300 transistors on a single piece of silicon. The figure is taken from Intel Corporation, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a technology fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Technology shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.