The Birth, Evolution and Future of Microprocessor

Swetha Kogatam
Computer Science Department
San Jose State University
San Jose, CA 95192
408-924-1000
[email protected]

ABSTRACT timed sequence through the bus system to output devices such as
The world's first microprocessor, the 4004, was co-developed by CRT Screens, networks, or printers. In some cases, the terms
Busicom, a Japanese manufacturer of calculators, and Intel, a U.S. 'CPU' and 'microprocessor' are used interchangeably to denote the
manufacturer of semiconductors. The basic architecture of 4004 same device.
was developed in August 1969; a concrete plan for the 4004 The different ways in which microprocessors are categorized are:
system was finalized in December 1969; and the first
microprocessor was successfully developed in March 1971. a) CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computers)
Microprocessors, which became the "technology to open up a new
b) RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computers)
era," brought two outstanding impacts, "power of intelligence" and
"power of computing". First, microprocessors opened up a new a) VLIW(Very Long Instruction Word Computers)
"era of programming" through replacing with software, the
b) Super scalar processors
hardwired logic based on IC's of the former "era of logic". At the
same time, microprocessors allowed young engineers access to
"power of computing" for the creative development of personal 2. BIRTH OF THE MICROPROCESSOR
computers and computer games, which in turn led to growth in the In 1970, Intel introduced the first dynamic RAM, which increased
software industry, and paved the way to the development of high- IC memory by a factor of four. These early products identified
performance microprocessors. In this paper, the birth, evolution Intel as an innovative young company. However, their next
and future of Microprocessor will be described. 4004 performance product, the microprocessor, was more than successful by setting
was only 0.06MIPS with 2,238 transistors and 750 KHz operating in motion an engineering feat that dramatically altered the course
frequency. Microprocessors evolved from 4 bit to 64 bit of electronics.
microprocessors, introducing computer technologies such as The project that produced the microprocessor originated in 1969,
pipeline, super-pipeline, super-scalar, VLIW, cache memory, and when Nippon Calculating Machine Corporation approached Intel
virtual memory system. Now, it is possible to integrate 16 sets of to design 12 custom chips for its new Busicom 141-PF printing
microprocessor with 64GB of memory on the board. In 20th calculator. Ted Hoff, the Intel engineer assigned to the project,
century, microprocessors were used for increasing "power of believed the design was not cost effective. His solution was to
intelligence". In 21st century, microprocessors will evolve into simplify the design and produce a programmable processor
"tool to bring forth wisdom" for all mankind. capable of creating a set of complex special-purpose calculator
chips.
1. INTRODUCTION
The microprocessor, which evolved from the inventions of the Together with Federico Fagin, later the founder of Zilog, Hoff
transistor and the integrated circuit, is one of the icons of the came up with a four-chip design; a ROM for custom application
present information age. The pervasiveness of the microprocessor programs, a RAM for processing data, an I/O device, and an
in this age goes far beyond the wildest imagination at the time of unnamed 4-bit central processing unit which would become
the first microprocessor. From the fastest computers to the known as a "microprocessor."
simplest toys, the microprocessor is found everywhere. The Busicom, initially skeptical, finally gave Intel the go ahead. Nine
microprocessor today has over 1 billion transistors on some of the months later, Intel successfully completed the project.
most powerful devices. Remarkably, the four-bit 4004 microprocessor, composed of 2,300
A microprocessor is a tiny, enormously powerful high speed transistors etched on a tiny chip, could execute 60,000 instructions
electronic brain etched on a single silicon semiconductor chip per second, making it as powerful as the massive ENIAC, but
which contains the basic logic, storage and arithmetic functions of despite the Busicom success, Intel itself was divided over the
a computer. It thinks for the computer and, like a traffic cop, microprocessor's broader application. Intel negotiated a return of
coordinates its operations. It receives and decodes instructions the Busicom design rights and committed to developing the
from input devices like keyboards, disks then sends them over a microprocessor's potential.
bus system consisting of microscopic etched conductive "wiring" The first fully functional 4004 parts were available in March 1971,
to be processed by its arithmetic calculator and logic unit. The with the first public announcement in November 1971; a
results are temporarily stored in memory cells and released in a
newspaper headline says “Announcing a New Era of Integrated technology. Below is the block diagram of the 4004.
Electronics”.
Intel 4004 was the first commercially available single-chip
microprocessor in history. It was a 4-bit CPU designed for usage
in calculators, designed for "embedded applications". Clocked at
740 KHz, the 4004 executed up to 92,000 single word instructions
per second, could access 4 KB of program memory and 640 bytes
of RAM. The Intel 4004 was a part of MCS-4 chipset, which
included the following chips:
i. 4001 - 256-bit mask ROM and 4-bit I/O device,
ii. 4002 - 320-bit RAM and 4-bit I/O device,
iii. 4003 - 10-bit shift register,
iv. 4008 and 4009 - standard memory and I/O interface
set.

Figure 2.Block diagram of 4004

The Intel 4004 was followed in 1972 by the Intel 8008, the world's
first 8-bit microprocessor. The 8008 is not an extension of the
4004 design, but the culmination of a separate design project at
Intel, arising from a contract with Computer Terminals
Corporation of San Antonio TX, for a chip they were designing. In
1969, CTC contracted two companies, Intel and Texas
Figure 1.Intel’s first 4004 microprocessor Instruments, to make a single-chip implementation, known as the
As the first single-chip microprocessor, the Intel 4004 is very CTC 1201. In late 1970, Texas Instruments dropped out being
popular with CPU collectors and non-collectors. Earlier Intel unable to make reliable parts. In 1970, with Intel yet to deliver the
C4004 CPUs in white ceramic package are sought-after by part, CTC opted to use their own implementation in the Data point
beginner and intermediate collectors, and are usually sold for 2200, using traditional TTL logic instead. Intel's version of the
hundreds of dollars. The only known second source manufacturer 1201 microprocessor arrived in late 1971, but was too late, slow,
of 4004 microprocessors was National Semiconductor. and required a number of additional support chips. CTC had no
interest in using it. CTC had originally contracted Intel for the
3. EVOLUTION chip, and would have owed them $50,000 for their design
In the earliest stages, microprocessors mainly filled the needs of work. To avoid paying for a chip they did not want, CTC released
embedded applications. As we trace the history of microprocessor, Intel from their contract and allowed them free use of the
we will explore its evolution and the driving forces behind this design. Intel marketed it as the 8008 in April, 1972, as the world's
evolution. The evolution of microprocessors can be divided into 5 first 8-bit microprocessor. It was the basis for the famous "Mark-
generations. 8” computer kit advertised in the magazine Radio-Electronics in
1974.
There were other microprocessors in the market during the same
3.1 First Generation (1971-73) period:
The microprocessors that were introduced from 1971 to 1973 were
i. Rockwell International’s PPS-4 (4 bits)
referred to as the first generation systems. First-generation
ii. National Semiconductor’s IMP-16 (16 bits)
microprocessors processed their instructions serially i.e., they
They were fabricated using PMOS technology which provided low
fetched the instruction, decoded it, and then executed it. When the
cost, slow speed and low output currents. They were not
instruction was completed, the microprocessor updated the
compatible with TTL.
instruction pointer and fetched the next instruction, performing
this sequential drill for each instruction in turn.
The Intel 4004 is a complete 4-bit parallel central processing unit 3.2 Second Generation (1974-78)
(CPU). The 4004 easily interfaces with keyboards, switches, By the late 1970s, enough transistors were available on the IC to
displays, AD converters, printers, and other peripheral equipment. usher in the second generation of microprocessor sophistication.
The CPU can directly address 4K 8-bit instruction words of The second generation marked the beginning of very efficient 8 bit
program memory and 5120 bits of data storage RAM. 16 Index microprocessors. Some of the popular processors were:
registers are provided for temporary data storage. Up to 16 4-bit i. Intel’s 8080
input ports and 16 4-bit output ports may also be directly ii. Motorola’s 6800 and 6809
addressed. The 4004 is fabricated with P-channel silicon gate MOS iii. Zilog’s Z80
This generation is defined by overlapped fetch, decode, and significant microcomputer application, the Tandy TRS-80, was
execute steps (Computer 1996). As the first instruction is introduced in 1977. The TRS-80 contained a Z80, 4-KB RAM, 4-
processed in the execution unit, the second instruction is decoded KB ROM, a keyboard, a black and white video display, and a tape
and the third instruction is fetched. The distinction between the cassette, all for $600. Thousands were sold in the first few months,
first and second generation devices was primarily the use of exceeding all projections. To this day, the Z80 continues to be a
newer semiconductor technology to fabricate the chips. This new popular microprocessor in embedded applications.
technology resulted in a five-fold increase in instruction,
execution, speed, and higher chip densities. They were
manufactured using NMOS technology. This technology offered
faster speed and higher density than PMOS. It is TTL compatible.

3.2.1 Intel 8080

Intel’s experience with the 8008 provided a tremendous source of
ideas on how to improve on the microprocessor. Starting in the
middle of 1972, these ideas were used to define the Intel 8080
microprocessor. The improvements in the 8080 included more
instructions, a 64-KB address space, 256 I/O ports, 16-bit
arithmetic instructions, and vectored interrupts. The designers of
the 8080 included some of the key individuals responsible for the
4004 and 8008, Federico Faggin and Masatoshi Shima. The 8080
was introduced in early 1974 with a price tag of $360. The 8080
was designed in 6-micron MOS with n-type transistor (NMOS)
technology and required 6,000 transistors. The 40-pin package
allowed for separate address and data buses. The first 8080 ran at 2
MHz and was rated at 0.64 millions of instructions per second Figure 3.Block diagram of Z80
(MIPS). Unlike the 4004 and 8008, the 8080 was quickly adopted
by designers. It was incorporated into numerous products, the
most significant being the Altair 8800 microcomputer kit from a 3.2.4 Other Noteworthy Microprocessors
company called MITS. The Altair showed there was a market for The 8-bit RCA 1802, introduced in 1974, was one of the first
microprocessors beyond traditional embedded applications. microprocessors designed using complementary MOS (CMOS)
technology. The 1802 ran at 6.4 MHz with a 10-volt supply,
3.2.2 Motorola’s 6800 making it one of the fastest microprocessors of its time. It’s simple
Motorola entered the microprocessor market in 1974 with the 8-bit design included sixteen 16-bit registers, which were also usable as
6800. The 6800 required 4,000 transistors and was fabricated in thirty-two 8-bit registers. It used an 8-bit opcode to implement the
NMOS technology. The 6800 offered some significant benefits limited instruction set. The most significant applications of the
over the 8080, including improved performance and the need for 1802 were in several NASA space probes. It was used in those
only a single 5-volt supply. The 6800 contained two 8-bit general- cases because a version that used the radiation-resistant silicon-on-
purpose registers and a single index register, which meant that it sapphire technology was available.
operated on data primarily in memory. Because the memory The 8-bit National Semiconductor single-chip microprocessor
technology at the time was faster than the microprocessor, (SC/MP), introduced in 1976, was the first microprocessor to
accessing memory did not impose a performance penalty. support multiple bus masters on its system bus. This feature
Motorola first produced a custom version of the 6800 for General supported multiple SC/MPs and other bus masters, such as a
Motors and later for Ford. This was the beginning of a huge direct memory access (DMA) controller. Arbitration was
market for embedded processors in cars, which Motorola has controlled by a “daisy chain” connecting the bus masters in
since dominated. Variants of the 6800 have been introduced over priority order. The ENOUT (enable out) and ENIN (enable in)
the years, including the 6809 in 1977, the 6801, the 68HC11, and signals of the SC/MP were used to chain the processors together.
the 68HC16. Another unique feature of the SC/MP was its bit serial arithmetic
logic unit (ALU).
3.2.3 Zilog’s Z80 The 16-bit TI TMS9900, introduced in 1976, was the first single-
Faggin and Shima left Intel in 1975 to form Zilog, which would chip 16-bit microprocessor. Its architecture was based on the TI
produce the Z80. The 2.5-MHz Zilog Z80 was released in 1976 and 990 minicomputer. The TMS9900 had only two 16-bit internal
offered compatibility with the 8080, along with many significant registers, with one of them pointing to the memory-resident
enhancements. The instruction set was expanded and included register set. The speed of memory at the time made it feasible to
block move and block I/O instructions. A second register set was use external memory for the register set. A simple adjustment of
added to better support interrupts and operating systems (OSs). the internal register could be used to save the registers for a
The Z80 interface simplified the system design by providing procedure call or interrupt. A version of the TMS9900, the
dynamic random access memory (DRAM) refresh signals and an TMS9940, was used in the TI 99/4 PC, introduced in 1979.
on-chip clock circuit, which could be connected directly to an
external crystal. The Z80 would outsell the 8080 as it became the
microprocessor of choice in many applications. The most
3.3 Third Generation (1979-80) 68010 added virtual memory support through the ability to restart
The third generation, introduced in 1979, was represented by instructions on a page fault. The 68020 was one of the first true 32-
Intel’s 8086 and the Zilog Z8000, which were 16 bit processors with a true pipeline, overlapping operand access
bit processors with minicomputer-like performance. The third with internal execution. It also was one of the first
generation came about as IC transistor counts approached microprocessors with an on-chip instruction cache of 256 bytes.
250,000. Motorola’s MC68020, for example, incorporated an on-
chip cache for the first time and the depth of the pipeline increased 3.3.3 Zilog’s Z8000
to five or more stages. This generation of microprocessors was The Z8000 was Zilog’s follow-on to the successful Z80. However,
different from the previous ones in that all major workstation the Z8000 sacrificed the compatibility of the Z80 to make better
manufacturers began developing their own RISC-based use of a 16-bit external bus to memory and to make the instruction
microprocessor architectures (Computer, 1996). This age is set orthogonal with respect to its 16 general-purpose registers.15
dominated by 16 – bits microprocessors The Z80’s 8-bit opcodes could not encode more than one of the 16
registers as an operand. The Z8000’s 16-bit registers could also be
3.3.1 Intel’s 8086 used as thirty-two 8-bit registers, eight 32-bit registers, and even as
The 8086 microprocessor was structured as a bus interface unit four 64-bit registers. The Z8000 was not pipelined because it was
(BIU) and an execution unit (EU). The BIU handled instruction felt that the fixed 16-bit instruction format and simple address
and operand fetches from memory. The BIU fed opcodes to and calculation eliminated the need for prefetching. The Z8000 was
requested operands from the EU, which performed the also singular in using hardwired logic instead of microcode ROM,
instructions. The BIU and EU constituted a simple pipeline, with in spite of increasing the instruction set from 128 instructions in
the BIU fetching instructions concurrently with processing in the the Z80 to 414. This may have contributed to its lack of success,
EU. The 8086 was source-code-compatible with the 8080/8085. It since it suffered from initial bugs.
used variable-length instructions of one or more bytes fetched into
the pre fetch queue. The four 16-bit registers could be used as 3.4 Fourth Generation (1981-1995)
either 16-bit or 8-bit registers. The 8086 instituted an unusual form As the workstation companies converted from commercial
of segmented addressing. Within a segment, addressing was microprocessors to in-house designs, microprocessors entered
limited to 64 KB. Addressing was expanded to 1 MB by the their fourth generation with designs surpassing a million
addition of the segment register shifted by four to a 16-bit address. transistors. This era marked the beginning of 32 bits
The 80286 extended addressing to 16 MB, but still through microprocessors. Intel introduced 432, which was bit problematic
segments of no more than 64 KB and only in “protected” mode as and then Intel 80386 was launched. Motorola introduced
opposed to the 8086’s “real” mode. The 8086 had a companion 68020/68030.
floating-point chip, the 8087. The 8087 introduced Intel’s 80-bit They were fabricated using low-power version of the HMOS
floating-point format, greatly influencing the IEEE floating-point technology called HCMOS. Motorola introduced 32-bit RISC
standard 754, issued in 1985. processors called MC88100.
Intel's first 32-bit microprocessor was the iAPX 432, which was
introduced in 1981 but was not a commercial success. It had an
advanced capability-based object-oriented architecture, but poor
performance compared to contemporary architectures such as
Intel's own 80286 (introduced 1982), which was almost four times
as fast on typical benchmark tests.
Motorola's success with the 68000 led to the MC68010, which
added virtual memory support. The MC68020, introduced in 1984
added full 32-bit data and address buses. The 68020 became
hugely popular in the UNIX super microcomputer market, and
many small companies produced desktop-size systems.
The MC68030 was introduced next, improving upon the previous
design by integrating the MMU into the chip. The continued
success led to the MC68040, which included an FPU for better
math performance. A 68050 failed to achieve its performance
goals and was not released, and the follow-up MC68060 was
released into a market saturated by much faster RISC designs. The
Figure 4.Block diagram of 8086 68k family faded from the desktop in the early 1990s.
Other large companies designed the 68020 and follow-ons into
3.3.2 Motorola’s 68000 embedded equipment. At one point, there were more 68020s in
The 68000 had a more orthogonal architecture than the 8086. The embedded equipment than there were Intel Pentiums in PCs
68000 fetched instructions of one or more 16-bit words. It featured
32-bit address and data registers, providing a linear address space
and a path to future full 32-bit implementations. The 68000 had a
3.4.1 Alpha and PowerPC
The Alpha21064 and PowerPC601 best illustrate the contrasting
simple pipeline, overlapping instruction fetch and execution. The
designs of the various RISC CPUs and are considered below in
some detail. Both processors were load-store architectures, with package in essence enabling a single processor to perform the
32-bit instructions and two 32/64-bit register files for floating point work of two processors.
and integer. The Alpha designers focused on very fast clocks, a
simple instruction set that would enable fast clocking, and deep 3.5.1 MIPS and HP
pipelines. The PowerPC instruction set had powerful instructions At its introduction in 1992, the MIPS R4000 was one of the fastest
that did more in each clock. Of the three factors that affect single-chip processors, with a super pipelined 64-bit architecture.
performance, Alpha chose to reduce the clock period and CPI at This architecture was engendered by the high-end graphics market
the expense of the number of instructions. The PowerPC601 took that Silicon Graphics dominated. The external clock (50 MHz) was
a more balanced approach.The clock rate of a CPU depends on the doubled in the CPU to clock the deep pipelines at 100 MHz.
amount of logic in each pipeline stage. Thus, longer pipelines Address and data buses were 64-bit and multiplexed. The R4000
reduce the amount of logic in each stage and allow faster clocks. had separate direct-mapped instruction and data caches of 8 KB
Unfortunately, branches in program execution cause greater and a second-level cache controller on chip. Several variations of
penalties in deep pipelines. Therefore, prediction of branches has the R4000 were made in the following years and the MIPS
become critical to high performance. architecture became popular in the embedded marketplace.
HP manufactured its own processors for its workstations.
During this time, National Semiconductor introduced a very
Therefore, PA-RISC was more proprietary than MIPS or SPARC.
similar 16-bit pin out, 32-bit internal microprocessor called the NS
The PA-RISC 7100 and 7200 were 32-bit processors with external
16032, the full 32-bit version named the NS 32032. Later, National
cache that required systems to use very-high speed static RAMs
Semiconductor produced the NS 32132, which allowed two CPUs
(SRAMs). The 7200, produced in 1994, had two integer units and
to reside on the same memory bus with built in arbitration. The
one FPU. It dispatched two instructions to any of the three units.
appearance of RISC processors like the AM29000 and MC88000
The first 64-bit architecture from HP was the 180-MHz PA-RISC
which no more exist now influenced the architecture of the final
8000, produced in 1996. For a short time it surpassed Digital’s
core, the NS32764.From 1993 to 2003, the 32-bit x86 architectures
333-MHz Alpha 21164 in integer performance. The pattern for
became increasingly dominant in desktop, laptop, and server
most of the 1990s has been that every new processor introduced
markets and these microprocessors became faster and more
tends to surpass its older rivals. The only exception has been
capable.
Alpha, which has held the top spot for most of the decade. The
threat to these traditional RISC vendors is the proliferation of x86
3.5 Fifth Generation (1995- Till date) and the encroachment of Windows NT into the UNIX market.
Microprocessors in their fifth generation, employed decoupled
super scalar processing, and their design soon surpassed 10 4. FUTURE OF MICROPROCESSOR
million transistors. In this generation, PCs are a low-margin, high- Considering the dramatic progress made in microprocessor design
volume-business dominated by a single microprocessor. This age and architecture since 1965, it’s risky to project what new
the emphasis is on introducing chips that carry on-chip technologies could become available in ten to fifteen years. And
functionalities and improvements in the speed of memory and I/O yet, a group of future-minded researchers are expressing optimism
devices along with introduction of 64-bit microprocessors. about the potential of tiny Nano electronic components, organic
Intel leads the show here with Pentium, Celeron and very recently molecules, carbon nanotubes and individual electrons that could
dual and quad core processors working with up to 3.5GHz speed. serve as the underlying technology for new generation of
microprocessors emerging around 2015. There are limits to what
While 64-bit microprocessor designs have been in use in several can be accomplished with silicon, says Philip J. Kuekes, a physics
markets since the early 1990s the early 2000s saw the introduction researcher at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories quoted in the New
of 64-bit microprocessors targeted at the PC market. With AMD's York Times. Kuekes says H-P is currently working on molecular-
introduction of a 64-bit architecture backwards-compatible with scale nanotechnology switches that, it is hoped, will be able to
x86, x86-64 followed by Intel's near fully compatible 64-bit overcome some of the present-day technological challenges.
extensions, the desktop era began. Both versions can run 32-bit
Kuekes, along with electrical engineers, chemists and physicists
legacy applications without any performance penalty as well as
from around the world, are collaborating with various
new 64-bit software. With operating systems Windows XP
semiconductor manufacturers and suppliers, government
x64, Windows Vista x64, Windows 7 x64, Linux, BSD, and Mac
organizations, consortia and universities to promote advancements
OS X that run 64-bit native, the software is also geared to fully
in the performance of microprocessors and solve some of the
utilize the capabilities of such processors. The move to 64 bits is
challenges that cast doubt on the continuation of the
more than just an increase in register size from the IA-32 as it also
advancements described by Moore's Law.
doubles the number of general-purpose registers.
The move to 64 bits by PowerPC processors had been intended The mid-term future of microprocessor advancements could very
since the processors' design in the early 90s and was not a major well be based on nanotechnology designs that overcome the
cause of incompatibility. Existing integer registers are extended as physical and quantum problems associated with conventional
are all related data pathways, but, as was the case with IA-32, both silicon transistors and processor cores.
floating point and vector units had been operating at or above Microprocessor technology has delivered three-orders-of-
64 bits for several years. In 2011, ARM introduced a new 64-bit magnitude performance improvement over the past two decades,
ARM architecture. The latest development is the introduction of so continuing this trajectory would require at least 30x
dual-core processors from both Intel and AMD. Dual-core performance increase by 2020. Microprocessor-performance
processors have two full CPU cores operating off of one CPU scaling faces new challenges precluding use of energy-inefficient
microarchitecture innovations developed over the past two more difficult to accomplish as, even Gordon Moore believes, the
decades. Further, chip architects must face these challenges with exponential upward curve in microprocessor hardware
an ongoing industry expectation of a 30x performance increase in advancements “can’t continue forever.” Because the future
the next decade and 1,000 x increases by 2030. winners are far from clear today, it is way too early to predict
As the transistor scales, supply voltage scales down, and the whether some form of scaling (perhaps energy) will continue or
threshold voltage of the transistor (when the transistor starts there will be no scaling at all. Moreover, the challenges processor
conducting) also scales down. But the transistor is not a perfect design will faces in the next decade will be dwarfed by the
switch, leaking some small amount of current when turned off, challenges posed by these alternative technologies, rendering
increasing exponentially with reduction in the threshold voltage. In today's challenges a warm-up exercise for what lies ahead.
addition, the exponentially increasing transistor-integration
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