Saturday, January 27, 2007

More Than 33,000 Times Faster!










How much faster are today's microprocessors and computers compared to the original microprocessor released by Intel in 1971?

The 4004 Intel processor in 1971 had a speed of 108 KHz (kilohertz, 10 to the 3rd power).

The Intel Pentium 4 processor runs at 3.6 GHz (gigahertz, 10 to the 9th power).

If I did my math correctly (.0333 x 10 to the 6th), computers today are more than 33,000 times faster than in 1971, or at least that is the increase in the speed of the microchips. The original microprocessors were used in the Busicom calculator/adding machine (see picture above).

See Intel's microprocesser timeline
here.

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