World’s First CPU

Yes, you read it right!

World’s first CPU was made by 3-year-old startup INTEL in 1971.

It was designed and built as a custom chip for a CALCULATOR.

The name of that CPU is INTEL 4004.

The 4004 was the first RANDOM LOGIC IC to use MOS SILICON GATE TECH (SGT).

FEDERICO FAGGIN, a FAIRCHILD engineer was hired by INTEL to design and lead the project of 4004.

FAGGIN Was the inventor of SGT and therefore using his expertise to develop his new process for random chip design used in the early INTEL CPUs.

The silicon gate used allowed double the number of Random Logic Transistors and Achieved 5 times faster speed.

FAGGIN also invented the BOOTRAP LOAD with SGT and the Buried contact which also improved circuit density and speed compared to aluminum gate.

4004 packs in approx. 2300 transistors.

It has a Max clock rate of 740KHz built using PMOS technology.

Can execute up to 92500 instructions per second.

Can address 4KB of ROM and 640 BYTES of RAM