Fifty years ago this month, Intel introduced the first commercial microprocessor, the 4004. Microprocessors are tiny, general-purpose chips that use integrated circuits made up of transistors to ...

The Microprocessor at 50: How the 4004 Changed The World The first general-purpose processor of the modern age came off the line today in 1971 to power a calculator. It changed the world.

The processors in today’s computers have grown tremendously in performance, capabilities and complexity over the past decade. Clock speed has skyrocketed, and size has dwindled, even as the number of ...