INTEL JOURNEY

INTRODUCTION 

Intel is a semiconductor computer circuit producer headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company's name originated from “Integrated electronics”. Microprocessors are developed by Intel to computer system providers such as Lenovo, HP, and Dell. Intel usually produces motherboard chipsets, integrated circuits and  network interface controllers, in addition to flash memory, photos chips, embedded CPUs, and different communications and computer hardware. Since microprocessors are Intel's major product, we would first like to introduce what exactly is a microprocessor.

 A microprocessor is a necessary part of a computer's architecture; without it, you won't be able to perform anything.It is a programmable device that accepts data, executes arithmetic and logical operations on it, and then generates the required result. To put it in simpler terms, a microprocessor is a digital system on a chip that can fetch instructions from memory, decode it and can execute them, and afterwards returns the solution. Information is processed by computers using integrated circuits (ICs). The microprocessor is the most complicated of all the chips in a computer. It's where a computer processes the data you give it.

A simpler sort of chip is used in DVD players, remote controllers, and electronic calculators. The instructions are programmed into embedded processors, which are employed in various devices. We can't change what they do by installing new software. For example, we cannot perform word processing on our VCR.

Embedded processors are limited in comparison to microprocessors. We  can change from word processing to playing a computer game or even browsing the Internet by changing the software we are using. Microprocessors are meant to do whatever the software we choose orders them to do, rather than being designed to do one thing.

HISTORY

Gordon E. Moore, a chemist, and Robert Noyce, a physicist and co-inventor of the integrated circuit, created Intel in Mountain View, California, in 1968. Intel was founded by a group of professionals, middle aged technologists who had strong reputations. Intel was first known for its ability to create logic circuits by using semiconductor chips. The purpose of the founders was to move into the semiconductor memory business, which was generally expected to replace magnetic-core memory.

Intel's first products were memory chips, including the 1101, the world's first metal oxide semiconductor, which was a flop. The 1103, a 1KB of DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) chip, on the other hand, was a success and the first chip to store a considerable quantity of data. Honeywell Incorporated, a technological business based in the United States, purchased it in 1970 to change the core memory systems in its computers. DRAMs swiftly surpassed core memory as the most popular memory device in computers around the world due to their lower cost and lower power consumption. In the same year, Intel developed the erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM) chip, which has always been the best selling line of products throughout 1985.

Intel started its first international manufacturing unit in Malaysia in 1972, which would eventually contain multiple Intel operations, before expanding to Singapore and Jerusalem in the early 1980s with assembly facilities and semiconductor plants, and manufacturing and development facilities in China, India, and Costa Rica in the 1990s.  (DRAM)  Dynamic random-access memory chips dominated the company's industry by the early 1980s. However, growing competition from Japanese semiconductor producers has severely impacted this market's profitability. However, Moore was inspired to move the company's attention to microprocessors through the immense growth of the IBM personal computer, which was based on an Intel microprocessor. As well as the decision of using Intel's 386 chip exclusively contributed to the company's continued success.

GENERATIONS OF INTEL PROCESSORS

If we look back to 10–15 years, there was no brand that could compete with Intel.  All computers at that time were powered by Intel processors.  As time goes on, technological advancements bring out the best Intel processors.  However, in today’s world, there is a brand known as AMD that is a strong competitor to the Intel brand. 

The first thing a salesperson informs you about when you buy a new laptop or computer is indeed the CPU and its generation. Since we all know, technology is rapidly evolving and upgrading as time and days passes. As a result, anytime advanced or superior technology is implemented in processors, Intel produces new versions of its processors. Intel releases these new processor generations as a series of new processor editions. Due to the implementation of Core i-series processors, the order of releasing processors in these generations began (i3, i5, i7, i9 CPUs). So, what are these Intel generations, exactly? How have they grown over time? The main Intel processor generations are listed here, along with their evolution over time:

INTEL 4004

Source: History of Intel 

In 1971, Intel released the Intel 4004, the first commercially available microprocessor. The microprocessor was a significant advancement in integrated circuitry technology because it compacted the central processing unit of a computer, allowing small computers to perform calculations that previously could only be done by very big machines. It was made to work with three other microchips: the 4001 ROM, the 4002 RAM, and the 4003 Shift Register. While the 4004 conducted calculations on its own, the other components were essential to the processor's operation. The 4004 was designed for use in calculators and other similar devices and was not intended for use in computers. It had a maximum clock speed of 740 kHz. The 4004 was succeeded by the 4040, a similar processor that was essentially an enhanced version of the 4004 with a larger instruction set and better performance. Intel earned a reputation for itself in the microprocessor industry with the 4004; later, Intel released a new range of eight-bit CPUs.

INTEL 8008 And 8080

Source: History of Intel 

In 1972, the 8008 was released first, succeeded by the 8080 in 1974 and the 8085 in 1975. However the 8008 was Intel's first 8 bit CPU, it pales in comparison to its predecessor and successor, the 8080. It was faster than that of the 4004 because it could handle data in 8 bit chunks, but it was only clocked at 200 to 800 kHz, and the 8008's capabilities unfortunately didn't appeal to several system developers. The Intel 8080 was a great success. It improved on the 8008's architecture by including new instructions and switching to six-micrometer transistors. This permitted Intel to even more than double the clock rates, making the 8080 CPUs the most powerful. Since this 8080 was featured in so many devices, various software developers, including the newly founded Microsoft, chose to concentrate on software for Intel's processors. The 8085 was mainly a less costly and faster-clocked version of the 8080, which was also a huge success but had a less impact.

INTEL 8086: The Beginning Of x86

Source: History of Intel 

The 8086 was Intel's first 16-bit processor, that helped to significantly improve performance over previous designs. It not only had a faster clock speed than the 8088, but it also had a 16-bit external data bus and a six-byte prefetch queue. The 8086's address bus was increased to 20 bits, allowing it to access up to 1MB of memory and hence improves performance. Around the same time, Intel released the 8088. The 8086 was used as the basis for this CPU, however it had half the data lines and a four-byte prefetch queue. This threw the system off balance since the narrower bus slowed instruction fetch rates, forcing Intel's execution unit to sit idle for long periods of time. It had up to 1MB of RAM and ran at greater rates than prior processors, but it was significantly slower than the 8086.

INTEL 80186 And 80188

Source: History of Intel 

After the 8086, Intel released a slew of new processors, most of which have a 16-bit design. The first was 80186, which was designed for embedded systems. Even at the same clock rate, certain instructions ran noticeably faster on the 80186 than on the 8086. Similarly, the low-cost 80188 had multiple bits of hardware built inside the processor. However, like the 8088, its data bus was halved. 8086.

The 80286

Source: History of Intel 

The 80286 was introduced the same year as the 80186 and had essentially comparable functionality, except that it had a 24-bit address bus, allowing it to access up to 16MB of memory. As a result, there was an increase in storage and performance.

First RISC - i960

Source: History of Intel 

In 1984, Intel released its first RISC CPU, which was designed to be a secure embedded technology. The early i960 processors had modest clock speeds, however over time they were enhanced and migrated to smaller ones that allowed them to reach speeds of up to 100 MHz. Moreover it supported secured memory of up to 4GB. The i960 was usually applied in both military and commercial systems.

Now that we mentioned and discussed about few of the most prominent and important generations of Intel’s microprocessor journey, from the pioneering 4-bit 4004 (1971) to Intel's First RISC, the i960, we shouldn't ignore the fact that the list of Intel processors that presents all of Intel's processors can keep going on and on. And it would take hours to cover up all of the released generations. Nevertheless, if we were to mention some of the well known processors developed by Intel in the past decades, some would be:

Nehalem microarchitecture: The first generation Intel Processors

Sandy Bridge – Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs are the second generation of Intel processors (2011)

Ivy Bridge – Intel Ivy Bridge processors are the third generation of Intel processors (2012)

Haswell – Intel Haswell CPUs are the fourth generation of Intel processors (2013)

Broadwell – Intel's 5th Generation CPUs (2014) - Along with the release of the Core X-Series, the 5th iteration of the i-series was announced.

Skylake – Intel Skylake processors are the 6th generation of Intel processors (2015)

Kaby Lake – Intel Kaby Lake processors are the 7th generation of Intel processors (2016)

Kaby Lake R – Intel Kaby Lake R CPUs are 8th generation Intel processors (2017)

Coffee Lake Refresh – 9th Generation Intel Processors - Coffee Lake Refresh (2017)

Comet Lake/Ice Lake – Intel Comet Lake/Ice Lake processors are 10th generation Intel processors (2019)

Alder Lake – Intel's 12th-Gen Alder Lake chips bring the company's hybrid architecture, which mixes a blend of high-performance cores with smaller high-efficiency cores, to desktop x86 PCs for the very first time.

CONCLUSION

Bill Holt, vice president and general manager of Intel's Technology and Manufacturing Group, remarked, "Intel has a long history of converting technological breakthroughs into concrete benefits that customers appreciate." Intel's progress rate and customer satisfaction reflect this forward-thinking attitude. Intel is the world's largest microprocessor manufacturer, and most computer makers and customers choose to use Intel microprocessors in their devices. It has the world's largest market share, estimated to be approximately 80%. Furthermore, Intel has effectively developed a strong branding strategy based on its brand image. Most people think of Intel as a good CPU architecture when they think of PCs. People trust Intel products since it is the most well-known brand. Furthermore, Intel employs highly trained and skilled personnel that have in-depth knowledge of the fields in which they participate and work.

By-

CS-A, Batch-1, Group 4

Authors:

Anikka Pandey

Shreya Ambekar

Amey Joshi

Somesh Alkanthi

Aishwarya Kale