Intel ships billionth chip

theciscokid

A quarter-century later, Intel has shipped its 1 billionth computer chip, according to figures compiled by semiconductor industry analyst firm Mercury Research and verified by Intel.

"From the 8086 to today's Intel Pentium 4 processor, Intel Xeon and Intel Centrino mobile technology, the Intel architecture has brought the benefits of digital intelligence to people around the world, making it the most successful computer architecture in the history of computing," says Pat Gelsinger, Intel senior vice president and chief technology officer.

Introduced in 1978, the original 16-bit 8086 chip contained only 29,000 transistors and ran at 5 megahertz. The original IBM PC shipped with a version of the 8086, the 8088 in 1982, ushering in a new age of PC computing. In comparison, today's Pentium 4 processor contains 55 million transistors and runs more than 600 times as fast at 3.06 gigahertz.

Based on combined desktop, laptop and server shipments, Mercury Research calculates that Intel reached the milestone in April, roughly 25 years after the debut of the first 8086 microprocessor on June 8, 1978.

Mercury Research calculates that the next billion X86 CPUs could come as early as 2007.

another billion by 2007 - as if

SouperComputer

Mercury Research calculates that the next billion X86 CPUs could come as early as 2007.

I hope the fcuk not! I want 64Bit thx!

Capt'n Midnight

RE: Introduced in 1978, the original 16-bit 8086 chip contained only 29,000 transistors and ran at 5 megahertz. The original IBM PC shipped with a version of the 8086, the 8088 in 1982,

eh? thought the IBM pc ran at 4.77MHz not 5

Must have used a pentium or a 386sx to do the counting if they can't be sure when they reached the billion ....