| Year |
Event |
| 1823 |
Baron Jons Jackob Berzelius silicon (Si), which today is the basic component of processors. |
| 1903 |
Nikola Tesla patents electrical logic circuits called "gates" or
"switches". |
| 1947 |
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley invent the first transistor at the Bell Laboratories on December 23, 1947. |
| 1948 |
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley patent the first transistor. |
| 1956 |
John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley are awarded the
Nobel Prize in physics for their work on the transistor. |
| 1958 |
The first integrated circuit is first developed by Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor and Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments. The first
IC was demonstrated on September 12, 1958. |
| 1960 |
IBM develops the first automatic
mass-production facility for transistors in New York. |
| 1968 |
Intel Corporation is founded by Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore. |
| 1969 |
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is
founded on May 1, 1969. |
| 1971 |
Intel with the help of Ted Hoff introduces the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 on November 15, 1971. The 4004 had
2,300 transistors, performed 60,000 operations per second (OPS),
addressed 640 bytes of memory, and cost $200.00. |
| 1972 |
Intel introduces the 8008 processor on April 1, 1972. |
| 1974 |
Intel's improved microprocessor chip
is introduced April 1, 1974, the 8080 becomes a standard in the computer industry. |
| 1976 |
Intel introduces the 8085 processor on
March 1976. |
| 1976 |
The Intel 8086 is introduced June 8, 1976. |
| 1979 |
The Intel 8088 is released on June 1, 1979. |
| 1979 |
The Motorola 6800,
an 8-bit processor is released and is later chosen as the processor for the Apple Macintosh. |
| 1982 |
The Intel 80286 is introduced February 1, 1982. |
| 1985 |
Intel introduces the
first 80386 in October 1985. |
| 1987 |
The SPARC processor is first introduced by Sun. |
| 1988 |
Intel 80386SX is introduced. |
| 1991 |
AMD introduces the AM386 microprocessor family in March. |
| 1991 |
Intel introduces the Intel 486SX chip in April in efforts to help bring a lower-cost processor to the PC market selling for $258.00. |
| 1992 |
Intel releases the 486DX2 chip March 2 with a clock doubling ability that generates higher operating speeds. |
| 1993 |
Intel releases the Pentium Processor on March 22 1993. The processor is a 60 MHz processor, incorporates 3.1 million transistors and sells for $878.00. |
| 1994 |
Intel releases the second generation of Intel Pentium processors on March 7, 1994. |
| 1995 |
Intel introduces the Intel Pentium Pro in November. |
| 1996 |
Intel announces the availability of the Pentium 150 MHz with 60MHz bus and 166 MHz with 66 MHz bus on January 4th. |
| 1997 |
Intel Pentium II is introduced on May 7, 1997. |
| 1999 |
Intel releases the Celeron 366 MHz and 400 MHz processors on January 4th. |
| 1999 |
The Intel Pentium III 500 MHz is released on February 26, 1999. |
| 1999 |
The Intel Pentium III 550 MHz is released on May 17, 1999. |
| 1999 |
The Intel Pentium III 600 MHz is released on August 2, 1999. |
| 1999 |
The Intel Pentium III 533B and 600B MHz is released on September 27, 1999. |
| 1999 |
The Intel Pentium III Coppermine series is first introduced on October 25, 1999. |
| 2000 |
On January 5 AMD releases the 800 MHz Athlon processor. |
| 2000 |
Intel releases the Celeron 533 MHz with a 66 MHz bus processor on January 4th. |
| 2000 |
Intel announces on August 28th that it will recall its 1.3 GHz Pentium III processors due to a glitch. Users with these processors should contact their vendors for additional information about the recall. |
| 2001 |
On January 3 Intel releases the 800 MHz Celeron processor with a 100 MHz bus. |
| 2001 |
On January 3 Intel releases the 1.3 GHz Pentium 4 processor. |
| 2001 |
On October 9, 2001 AMD announces a new branding scheme. Instead of identifying processors by their clock speed the AMD XP will bear monikers of 1800+, 1700+, 1600+ and 1500+, with each lower model number representing a lower clock speed. |
| 2002 |
Intel releases the Celeron 1.3 GHz with a 100 MHz bus and 256 kB of level 2 cache. |
| 2003 |
Intel Pentium M is introduced in March. |
| 2006 |
Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E6320 (4M Cache, 1.86 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) April 22, 2006. |
| 2006 |
Intel introduces the Intel Core 2 Duo processors with the Core2 Duo Processor E6300 (2M Cache, 1.86 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) July 27, 2006. |
| 2007 |
Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E4300 (2M Cache, 1.80 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) January 21, 2007. |
| 2007 |
Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E4400 (2M Cache, 2.00 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) April 22, 2007. |
| 2007 |
Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E4500 (2M Cache, 2.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) July 22, 2007. |
| 2007 |
Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E4500 (2M Cache, 2.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) July 22, 2007. |
| 2007 |
Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E4600 (2M Cache, 2.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) October 21, 2007. |
| 2008 |
Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E4700 (2M Cache, 2.60 GHz, 800 MHz FSB) March 2, 2008. |
| 2008 |
Intel releases the Core 2 Duo E7200 (3M Cache, 2.53 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) on April 20, 2008. |
| 2008 |
Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E7300 (3M Cache, 2.66 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) August 10, 2008. |
| 2008 |
Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E7400 (3M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) October 19, 2008. |
| 2009 |
Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E7500 (3M Cache, 2.93 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) January 18, 2009 |
| 2009 |
Intel releases the Core2 Duo Processor E7600 (3M Cache, 3.06 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB) May 31, 2009 |
