...modern computing. A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify and switch electronic signals and electric power. It is composed of a semiconductor material with at least three terminals for connection to an external circuit. The transistor has become a fundamental building block of modern electronic devices, and is omnipresent in modern electronic systems. The need for the transistor arose due to its’ predecessor, the vacuum tube’s numerous inefficiencies. Vacuum tubes were notoriously unreliable, due to the heat they generated, and in larger instillations, one failed every couple hours or so. In order to counteract the problem, two Bell Laboratory engineers went to work. In 1947, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain created the transistor. It was smaller, more reliable, and consumed much less power; it made the vacuum tube obsolete. A few short months later, Bell associate William Shockley created the junction transistor, and together the three men were awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics. Moore's Law observes that over the history of computing technology, roughly every two years the number of transistors in dense integrated circuitry doubles. In 1971 Intel created the 4004, the first microprocessor. A microprocessor is a piece of integrated circuitry that contains all the functions of a computer's CPU. the Intel 4004 housed 2,300 transistors, in a chip that was only 2 inches large. Just a few decades prior it would've taken an entire room worth of equipment to do...
Words: 508 - Pages: 3
...2 Moore’s Law is a computing term which originated around 1970; the simplified version of this law states that processor speeds, or overall processing power for computers will double every two years. A quick check among technicians in different computer companies show that the term is not very popular but the rule is still accepted. To break down the law even further, it specifically stated that the number of transistors on an affordable CPU would double every two years (which is essentially the same thing that was stated before) but more transistors’ is more accurate. If you were to look at processor speeds from the 1970’s to 2009 and then again in 2010, one may think that the law has reached its limit or is nearing the limit. In the 1970’s processor speeds ranged from 740 KHz to 8MHz; notice that the 740 KHz, which is Kilo Hertz- while the 8 is MHz, which is Mega Hertz. From 2000-2009 there has not really been much of speed difference as the speeds ranged from 1.3 GHz to 2.8 GHz, which suggests that the speeds have barely doubled within a 10 year span. This is because we are looking at the speeds and not the number of transistors; in 2000 the number of transistors in the CPU numbered 37.5 million, while in 2009 the number went up to an outstanding 904 million; this is why it is more accurate to apply the law to transistors than to speed. With all this talk of transistors the average technician or computer user may not understand what the figures mean; a simpler...
Words: 810 - Pages: 4
...this processor was Quad-Core Itanium Tukwila * I believe the growth is reasonable. From the advances we’ve made from the 70’s to now such as the cell phone, laptops, hand held devices. It’s no surprise that it increased so much each year. We are able to grow rapidly, and we are in a generation of technology. It wouldn’t be crazy to think that this was possible from seeing other devices progress as well, even now you can hold a computer in the palm of your hand. * The growth from 1971-2014 is outstanding. The first couple years they were released the processors had very few transistors and didn’t increase that much yearly. However, after 1974 with each year the amount of chips almost doubled itself each year. Afterwards with the years to come, the growth rapidly increased. By the year 2010 the transistor count reached 2 billion with the release of the Quad-Core Itanium Tukwila processor. * With this information it’s hard to predict when it could reach 100 billion transistors on a single chip, however seeing the growth from the 70’s to the present we can be sure that it isn’t far fetched to believe it could happen with the upcoming years as technology advances, my prediction would have to be by 2020+ we would be able to accomplish 100 billion on a chip or even more. It all depends how fast we move and the necessity for more transistors on one chip. One thing we know for sure is that growth will remain to be...
Words: 332 - Pages: 2
...Christle Comstock June 20, 2013 Unit 1 Assignment 1: Integrated Circuit Technology The table: The processor model and year when two billion transistors were placed on a single processor chip is: Intel is expected to give attendees at the super-techie conference a rundown on Tukwila specs, and on its upcoming low-power Silverthorne processor. The new 65-nanometer Tukwila Itanium processor, which is expected to be released at the end of this year, will run at up to 2 GHz, have dual-integrated memory controllers and use Intel's QuickPath interconnect instead of a front-side bus. The processor also will have 2 billion transistors on one chip, according to Rob Shiveley, a spokesman for Intel. Itanium, which first hit the market in 2001, targets enterprise servers and high-performance computing machines. "The more transistors on a chip, the more work you get out of that chip," said Dean Freeman, an analyst at Gartner Inc. "With one of these new chips, you should get better performance than you would with two chips out of the previous generation." For some perspective, an earlier Itanium processor, Montecito, was built on 90nm technology and held 1.7 billion transistors. And Penryn, Intel's new 45nm chip for the desktop, which it released last November, has 820 million newly designed transistors. Shiveley noted that Tukwila is expected to have double the performance of Montvale, another Itanium processor that was released late last year, while using only 25% more power...
Words: 999 - Pages: 4
...Computer Structure and Logic NT1110 Unit 1 Assignment 1: Integrated Circuit Technology Table 1 Processor Model | Year | Transistor Count | | | | 4004 | 1971 | 2,300 | 8008 | 1972 | 2,500 | 8080 | 1974 | 4,500 | Intel 8085 | 1976 | 6500 | Intel8086 | 1978 | 29,000 | Intel 8088 | 1979 | 29,000 | Intel 286 | 1982 | 134,000 | Intel 386 Processor | 1985 | 275,000 | Intel 486 Processor | 1989 | 1,200,000 | Intel Pentium Processor | 1993 | 3,100,000 | Pentium Pro | 1995 | 5,500,000 | Intel Pentium II Processor | 1997 | 7,500,000 | Pentium III | 1999 | 9,500,000 | Pentium 4 | 2000 | 42,000,000 | Itanium 2 McKinley | 2002 | 220,000,000 | Itanium 2 Madison 6M | 2003 | 410,000,000 | Core 2 Duo | 2006 | 291,000,000 | Atom | 2008 | 47,000,000 | Core i7 (Quad) | 2008 | 731,000,000 | Quad-Core + GPU Core i7 | 2011 | 1,160,000,000 | Intel 9300 Tukwila Processor | 2010 | 2,000,000,000 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Comment on the growth of the number of transistors used in integrated circuits over the years. The growth of transistors used in integrated circuits has nearly doubled every 18 months give or take a little. This growth falls in line with Moore’s Law. Gordon Moore a founder of Intel noticed the trends in computer memory and made an observation of the trends. Moore stated that the amount of transistors on a chip would double every 18 months to 2 years. This has held true for the most...
Words: 302 - Pages: 2
...Integrated Circuit Technology 1971: The Intel 4004 was a 4-bit central processing unit (CPU) released by Intel Corporation in 1971. It was the second complete CPU on one chip (only preceded by the TMS 1000), and also the first commercially available microprocessor. Such a feat of integration was made possible by the use of then-new silicon gate technology allowing a higher number of transistors and a faster speed than was possible before. 1974: The Intel 8080 was the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel and was released in April 1974. It was an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compatibility. The initial specified clock frequency limit was 2 MHz, and with common instructions having execution times of 4, 5, 7, 10, or 11 cycles this meant that it operated at an effective speed of a few hundred thousand instructions per second. 1978: The 8086 is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and mid-1978, when it was released. The Intel 8088, released in 1979, was a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allowing the use of cheaper and fewer supporting logic chips[note 1]), and is notable as the processor used in the original IBM PC. The 8086 gave rise to the x86 architecture which eventually turned out as Intel's most successful line of processors. 1993: Pentium microprocessor was introduced on March 22, 1993. Its microarchitecture, dubbed P5, was Intel's fifth-generation...
Words: 469 - Pages: 2
...Itanium 2012/ 3,100,000,000 62-Core Xeon Phi 2012/5,000,000,000 The processor chip to hold 2 billion transistors model is Quad-Core Itanium Tukwila and it was launched in 2010. http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/events/moores_law_40th/?iid=tech_mooreslaw+body_presskit http://www.wagnercg.com/Portals/0/FunStuff/AHistoryofMicroprocessorTransistorCount.pdf Is the growth reasonable? I say that it is reasonable why, because computing power rose and if the trend continues like it has done and it is still as accurate it will rise even more. Does the growth look surprisingly fast or surprisingly slow? I think it’s going surprisingly fast, every 2 years they are doing double of the previous amount of transistors used in integrated circuits. Can you predict when 100 billion, or even one trillion, transistors may fit on a single chip? If the Moore’s law is still in play and continues to double transistors in a chip every 2 years in approximately 2022 for it to hold around 100 billion and for one trillion in...
Words: 318 - Pages: 2
...Processor | Transistor count | Date of introduction | Manufacturer | Intel 4004 | 2,300 | 1971 | Intel | Intel 8008 | 3,500 | 1972 | Intel | | | | | | | | | Intel 8080 | 4,500 | 1974 | Intel | | | | | Intel 8085 | 6,500 | 1976 | Intel | | | | | | | | | Intel 8086 | 29,000 | 1978 | Intel | Intel 8088 | 29,000 | 1979 | Intel | Intel 80186 | 55,000 | 1982 | Intel | | | | | Intel 80286 | 134,000 | 1982 | Intel | | | | | Intel 80386 | 275,000 | 1985 | Intel | | | | | | | | | Intel 80486 | 1,180,235 | 1989 | Intel | | | | | | | | | | | | | Pentium | 3,100,000 | 1993 | Intel | | | | | Pentium Pro | 5,500,000 | 1995 | Intel | | | | | Pentium II | 7,500,000 | 1997 | Intel | | | | | Pentium III | 9,500,000 | 1999 | Intel | | | | | | | | | Pentium 4 | 42,000,000 | 2000 | Intel | Atom | 47,000,000 | 2008 | Intel | | | | | | | | | Itanium 2 McKinley | 220,000,000 | 2002 | Intel | | | | | Core 2 Duo | 291,000,000 | 2006 | Intel | Itanium 2 Madison 6M | 410,000,000 | 2003 | Intel | | | | | | | | | | | | | Itanium 2 with 9MB cache | 592,000,000 | 2004 | Intel | Core i7 (Quad) | 731,000,000 | 2008 | Intel | | | | | | | | | | | | | Quad-Core + GPU Core i7 | 1,160,000,000 | 2011 | Intel | Six-Core Core i7 (Gulftown) | 1,170,000,000 | 2010 | Intel | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |...
Words: 353 - Pages: 2
...Integrated Circuit Technology (U1AS1) Processor Model | Transistor Count | Year | Intel 4004 | 2,300 | 1971 | Intel 8008 | 3,500 | 1972 | Intel 8080 | 4,500 | 1974 | Intel 8086 | 29,000 | 1978 | Intel 286 | 134,000 | 1982 | Intel 386 | 275,000 | 1985 | Intel 486 | 1,200,000 | 1989 | Intel Pentium | 3,100,000 | 1993 | Intel Pentium Pro | 5,500,000 | 1995 | Intel Pentium II | 7,500,000 | 1997 | Intel Celeron | 7,500,000 | 1998 | Intel Pentium III | 9,500,000 | 1999 | Intel Pentium 4 | 42,000,000 | 2000 | Intel Xeon | 42,000,000 | 2001 | Intel Pentium M | 55,000,000 | 2003 | Intel Core 2 Duo | 291,000,000 | 2006 | Intel Core i7 (quad) | 731,000,000 | 2008 | Intel Quad-Core Itanium | 2,000,000,000 | 2010 | Intel Six-Core i7/8 | 2,270,000,000 | 2011 | Intel 8-Core Itanium | 3,100,000,000 | 2012 | The processor chip that has two billion transistors placed in it was the Intel Quad-Core Itanium, which was released in 2010. Source: 1. http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/corporate-information/museum-transistors-to-transformations-brochure.pdf 2. http://www.wagnercg.com/portals/0/funstuff/AHistoryofMicroProcessorTransistorCount.pdf The growth of the transistor is reasonable because computer technology grew and it will keep growing, which Moore’s law proves that the growth...
Words: 283 - Pages: 2
...Electronic Design Automation and the Design of Integrated Circuits Abstract A circuit, simply put, is defined as a complete path around which an electric current can flow in order to complete a predesigned task. Circuit design is the intermediate process by which electrical circuits are moved from the specification stage - where the circuit’s purpose is determined - to the production stage, where all of the information necessary to build a working circuit is ready for implementation. In order to keep up with demand for consumer electronics, a fast and efficient way to design and construct the myriad types of circuitry must be in place. This essay will illustrate the basics of circuit design and describe the automated circuit design process. Electronic Design Automation In a large part of the world, electronics are a mainstay of modern society. In the beginning, electronics were much more simple in design, but with the caveat of being much larger today: in the 1980s cellular phones weighed upwards of two pounds and were about three times the size of modern cell phones. Over time, as electronics became smaller and as demand for them increased, a way to design and construct smaller and more efficient circuits became necessary. Enter Electronic Design Automation. An electric circuit is an electrical path that provides a path for an electrical current to flow. While it may seem like a simple matter to design and construct a circuit, the process has become quite intensive, requiring...
Words: 1344 - Pages: 6
...have made these developments in microelectronics possible. Silicon based microelectronic devices have revolutionized our world in the past three decades. Integrated circuits, built up from many silicon devices (such as transistors and diodes) on a single chip, control everything from cars to telephones, not to mention the Internet. Silicon technology is still the most reliable and cost-efficient way to fabricate large microelectronic circuits. Semiconductors have played an amazing role and have impacted technology in many ways. Every technology product we use in the modern world is created with silicon and depends on semiconductors. The earliest semiconductor device was a diode which let electricity flow in only one direction. Integrated circuits are called micro chips which are complex circuits that are made of many miniature chips of semiconductor and made of silicon. These chips are packaged in a plastic casing and the fine wires inside the chip link to the pins outside. Microchip is the integration of a whole CPU onto a single chip or on a few chips and greatly reduced the cost of processing power. The integrated circuit processor is produced in large numbers by highly automated processes. A microchip or microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU) on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few...
Words: 1444 - Pages: 6
...have made these developments in microelectronics possible. Silicon based microelectronic devices have revolutionized our world in the past three decades. Integrated circuits, built up from many silicon devices (such as transistors and diodes) on a single chip, control everything from cars to telephones, not to mention the Internet. Silicon technology is still the most reliable and cost-efficient way to fabricate large microelectronic circuits. Semiconductors have played an amazing role and have impacted technology in many ways. Every technology product we use in the modern world is created with silicon and depends on semiconductors. The earliest semiconductor device was a diode which let electricity flow in only one direction. Integrated circuits are called micro chips which are complex circuits that are made of many miniature chips of semiconductor and made of silicon. These chips are packaged in a plastic casing and the fine wires inside the chip link to the pins outside. Microchip is the integration of a whole CPU onto a single chip or on a few chips and greatly reduced the cost of processing power. The integrated circuit processor is produced in large numbers by highly automated processes. A microchip or microprocessor incorporates the functions of a computer's central processing unit (CPU) on a single integrated circuit, or at most a few...
Words: 1445 - Pages: 6
...influenced the industrial of computers. Science Impacting Modern Life The three essential properties of every material are 1: the kind of atoms of which it is made, 2: the way those atoms are arranged, and 3: the way the atoms are bonded to each other” and (Trefil and Hazen), stated that “Based on our understanding of atoms and their chemical bonding, we now realize that the properties of every material depend on three essential features, such as As we learned we will realize that all materials have difficult properties in them and no matter what the materials are, they are make-up of atoms. For example: Computers are made up of simple elements and these elements are major components of the material in the developments of science in today technology. New materials often lead to new technologists that change society. Describe how silicon-based semiconductors revolutionized computing. I have...
Words: 872 - Pages: 4
...advanced technology is involved. In order for the film to start playing in an even sequence when we press the play button, the data must reach us quickly via a long series of devices, antennas and receivers. With an increasing number of users, higher demands on image quality and more wireless systems, producing methods for transmitting the enormous amounts of data through the air with the right speed poses a major challenge. The solution might be to use higher frequencies than today, from 100 Gigahertz and higher, since this would give access to a larger band of empty frequencies, enabling a higher data rate. Researchers all over the world are working to produce data circuits that can transmit and receive signals that are strong enough at higher frequencies. A Swedish group from Chalmers University of Technology and Ericsson has already been successful. "We have designed circuits for signals at 140 Gigahertz, where we have a large bandwidth. In laboratory testing, we have achieved a transmission rate of 40 Gigabit data per second, which is twice as fast as the previous world record at a comparable frequency," says Herbert Zirath, who is a professor in high speed electronics at Chalmers. He is also employed by Ericsson Research on a part-time basis. As a result of the record, the researchers have been asked to talk about their results together with a few other researchers under the heading "Breaking News" on Wednesday at the Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuits Symposium...
Words: 550 - Pages: 3
...ENIAC machines – the UNIVAC is the first every commercial computer which was purchased in 1951 by a business – the US Census Bureau. 1956 – 1963: Second Generation [ Transistors ] The replacement of vacuum tubes by transistors saw the advent of the second generation of computing. Although first invented in 1947, transistors weren’t used significantly in computers until the end of the 1950s. They were a big improvement over the vacuum tube, despite still subjecting computers to damaging levels of heat. However they were hugely superior to the vacuum tubes, making computers smaller, faster, cheaper and less heavy on electricity use. They still relied on punched 1964 – 1971: Third Generation [ Integrated Circuits ] By this phase, transistors were now being miniaturised and put on silicon chips (called semiconductors). This led to a massive increase in speed and efficiency of these machines. These were the first computers where users interacted using keyboards and monitors which interfaced with an operating system, a significant leap up from the punch cards and printouts. This enabled these machines to run several applications at once using a central program which functioned to monitor memory. 1972 – 2010: Fourth Generation [ Microprocessors ] This revolution can be summed in one word: Intel. The chip-maker developed the Intel 4004 chip in 1971, which positioned all computer components (CPU,...
Words: 438 - Pages: 2
