according to the word length and function of microprocessor, its development can be divided into the following stages.
the first stage
the first stage (1971-1973) is the era of 4-bit and 8-bit low-end microprocessors, which are usually called the first generation. Its typical products are Intel44 and Intel88 microprocessors and MCS-4 and MCS-8 microcomputers composed of them respectively. The basic feature is that PMOS technology is adopted, with low integration (4 transistors/chip), simple system structure and instruction system, mainly using machine language or simple assembly language, with fewer instructions (more than 2 instructions), and the basic instruction cycle is 2~5μs, which is used in simple control occasions.
in 1969, Intel started to develop the first microprocessor for a project of Japanese computer manufacturer Busicom, and developed a variety of chips for a series of programmable computers. Finally, on November 15th, 1971, Intel introduced the 44 microprocessor to the global market. At that time, the price of each Intel 44 processor was $2. 44 is Intel's first microprocessor, which lays the foundation for the future development of system intelligent functions and personal computers. The number of its transistors is about 2,3.
the second stage
the second stage (1974-1977) is the era of 8-bit middle and high-grade microprocessors, which is usually called the second generation, and its typical products are Intel88/885, Motorola, Zilog Z8 and so on. They are characterized by NMOS technology, which improves the integration by about 4 times and the operation speed by about 1~15 times (the execution time of basic instructions is 1~2μs). The instruction system is relatively complete, with typical computer architecture and control functions such as interrupt and DMA. In terms of software, besides assembly language, there are high-level languages such as BASIC and FORTRAN, corresponding interpreters and compilers, and operating systems appeared in the later period.
in p>1974, Intel introduced the 88 processor, which was used as the computing core of Altair personal computer. Altair was the destination of the spacecraft Enterprise in the TV series Star Trek. Computer addicts could buy a set of Altair kits for $395 at that time. It sold tens of thousands of sets in a few months, becoming the first model manufactured after placing an order in history. The number of Intel 88 transistors is about 6,.
the third stage
the third stage (1978-1984) is the era of 16-bit microprocessors, usually called the third generation, and its typical products are 886/888 from Intel, M68 from Motorola and Z8 from Zilog. It is characterized by HMOS technology, and its integration (2, ~ 7, transistors/chip) and operation speed (basic instruction execution time is .5μs) are improved by an order of magnitude compared with the second generation. The instruction system is richer and more perfect, with multi-level interrupts, multiple addressing modes, segmented storage mechanism, hardware multiplication and division components, and a software system. The famous microcomputer products in this period include IBM's personal computer. In 1981, the personal computer introduced by IBM adopted 888CPU. Then in 1982, an extended personal computer IBM PC/XT was introduced, which expanded the memory and added a hard disk drive.
8286 (also known as 286) is Intel's first processor that can execute all proprietary software of old processors. This software compatibility later became the registered trademark of Intel's full range of microprocessors. During the six-year sales period, it is estimated that 15 million 286 personal computers have been installed around the world. The number of transistors in the Intel 8286 processor is 134,. In 1984, IBM introduced the 16-bit enhanced personal computer IBM PC/AT with 8286 processor as the core. Because IBM adopted the strategy of opening technology when developing personal computers, personal computers became popular all over the world.
Stage 4
Stage 4 (1985-1992) was the era of 32-bit microprocessors, also known as the 4th generation. Its typical products are Intel's 8386/8486, Motorola's M693/684 and so on. It is characterized by adopting HMOS or CMOS technology, with integration up to 1 million transistors/chip, 32-bit address line and 32-bit data bus. It can complete 6 Million Instructions Per Second (MIPS). The function of microcomputer has reached or even surpassed that of super mini-computer, and it is fully capable of multi-task and multi-user operation. At the same time, some other microprocessor manufacturers (such as AMD and TEXAS) also introduced 8386/8486 series chips.
8386DX has 32-bit internal and external data bus and 32-bit address bus, which can address 4GB of memory and manage 64TB of virtual storage space. In addition to real mode and protection mode, its operation mode also adds a "virtual 86" working mode, which can provide multi-task capability by simulating multiple 886 microprocessors at the same time. 8386SX is a cheap and popular CPU introduced by Intel to expand its market share. Its internal data bus is 32 bits and its external data bus is 16 bits. It can accept the 16-bit input/output interface chip developed for 8286 and reduce the cost of the whole machine. After the launch of 8386SX, it was widely welcomed by the market, because the performance of 8386SX was much better than that of 8286, and the price was only one third of that of 8386. The Intel 8386 microprocessor contains 275, transistors-more than 1 times more than the original 44. This 32-bit processor supports multitasking design for the first time and can execute multiple programs at the same time. The number of Intel 8386 transistors is about 275,.
in p>1989, the 8486 chip that we are all familiar with was introduced by Intel. The greatness of this chip, which has been developed for four years and invested by 3 million dollars, is that it actually broke the boundary of 1 million transistors for the first time, integrated 1.2 million transistors and used a 1 micron manufacturing process. The clock frequency of 8486 is gradually increased from 25MHz to 33MHz, 4MHz and 5MHz.
8486 integrates 8386, math coprocessor 8387 and an 8KB cache into one chip. The digital operation speed of 8487 integrated in 8486 is twice that of the previous 8387, and the internal cache shortens the waiting time of microprocessor and slow DRAM. Moreover, RISC (Reduced Instruction Set) technology is adopted for the first time in 8x86 series, which can execute one instruction in one clock cycle. It also adopts the burst bus mode, which greatly improves the data exchange speed with the memory. Because of these improvements, the performance of 8486 is four times higher than that of 8386 DX with 8387 math coprocessor.
Stage 5
Stage 5 (1993-25) is the era of pentium series microprocessors, usually called the 5th generation. Typical products are Intel Pentium series chips and AMD K6 and K7 series microprocessor chips compatible with them. The superscalar instruction pipeline structure is adopted internally, and there are independent instruction and data caches. With the appearance of MMX(Multi Media eXtended) microprocessor, the development of microcomputer has reached a higher level in networking, multimedia and intelligence.
Pentium II processor introduced in p>1997 combined with Intel MMX technology, which can process movies, sound effects and drawing data with high efficiency. It was the first time to adopt Single Edge Contact (S.E.C) box package with built-in high-speed cache. This chip allows computer users to capture, edit and share digital photos with friends and relatives through the network, edit and add text, music or make transition effects of home movies, use videophones and transmit movies through standard telephone lines and the Internet. The number of transistors of Intel Pentium II processor is 7.5 million.
The Pentium III processor introduced in p>1999 added 7 new instructions, and the SIMD extension set of Internet streaming called MMX can greatly improve the performance of advanced images, 3D, streaming music, movies, voice recognition and other applications. It can greatly improve the experience of using the Internet, and enable users to browse realistic online museums and shops and download high-quality movies. Intel introduced .25 micron technology for the first time, and the number of Intel Pentium III transistors is about 9.5 million.
in the same year, Intel also released the Pentium IIIXeon processor. As the successor of Pentium II Xeon, it not only adopts a new design on the kernel architecture, but also inherits 7 instruction sets added by Pentium III processor to better execute multimedia and streaming media applications. In addition to facing the enterprise market, Pentium III Xeon has strengthened the ability of e-commerce application and high-level business computing. There are also many improvements in cache speed and system bus structure, which greatly improve the performance and design for better multi-processor cooperation.
in p>2, Intel released the Pentium 4 processor. Users can use personal computers based on Pentium 4 processors to create professional-quality movies, transmit TV-quality images through the Internet, conduct real-time voice and image communication, perform real-time 3D rendering, quickly perform MP3 encoding and decoding operations, and run multiple multimedia software when connecting to the Internet.
Pentium 4 processor has integrated 42 million transistors, and the improved Pentium 4(Northwood) has integrated 55 million transistors. And began to use .18 micron for manufacturing, and the initial speed reached 1.5GHz. ?
Pentium 4 also provides SSE2 instruction set, which adds 144 brand-new instructions. In SSE, data compressed at 128bit can only be processed in the form of four single-precision floating-point values, while in SSE2 instruction set, the data can be processed by various data structures:
four single-precision floating-point numbers (SSE2)； correspond to two double-precision floating-point numbers (SSE 2); Corresponding to 16 bytes (SSE 2); Corresponding to 8 words (word); Corresponding to 4 double words (SSE 2); Corresponding to two four-word numbers (SSE 2); Corresponds to a 128-bit integer (SSE2).
in p>23, Intel released the Pentium M(mobile) processor. In the past, although there were mobile versions of Pentium II, III and even Pentium 4-M products, these products were still based on the design of desktop computer processors, adding some new features of energy saving and management. Even so, the energy consumption of Pentium III-M and Pentium 4-M is much higher than that of CPU specially designed for mobile computing, such as Quanmeida's processor.
Intel Pentium M processor combines 855 chipset family with Intel PRO/Wireless21 network connection technology, and becomes the most important part of Intel Centrino mobile computing technology. Pentium M processor can provide the main frequency up to 1.6GHz, and includes various performance enhancement functions, such as: 4MHz system bus for optimizing power supply, Micro-OpsFusion and Dedicated Stack Manager. These tools can quickly execute instruction sets and save power.
in p>25, Intel introduced two dual-core processors, Pentium D and Pentium Extreme Edition, and at the same time introduced 945/955/965/975 chipset to support the newly-launched dual-core processors. The two newly-launched dual-core processors produced by 9nm technology used LGA 775 interface without pins, but the number of chip capacitors at the bottom of the processors increased and the arrangement was different.
The processor code Smithfield of the desktop platform is officially named Pentium D processor. In addition to getting rid of Arabic numerals and using English letters to indicate the generation alternation of Dual-Core processors, the letter D is also more reminiscent of the meaning of dual-core.
Intel's dual-core architecture is more like a dual-CPU platform, and Pentium D processors continue to use Prescott architecture and 9nm production technology. Actually, the Pentium D kernel is composed of two independent Prescott cores, each core has an independent 1MB L2 cache and execution unit, and the two cores add up to 2MB. However, since the two cores in the processor have independent caches, it is necessary to ensure that the information in each secondary cache is completely consistent, otherwise an operation error will occur.
in order to solve this problem, Intel handed over the coordination between the two cores to the external MCH (north bridge) chip. Although the data transmission and storage between caches are not huge, it will undoubtedly bring some delay to the whole processing speed because of the need to coordinate processing through the external MCH chip, thus affecting the overall performance of the processor.
due to Prescott kernel, Pentium D also supports EM64T technology and XD bit security technology. It is worth mentioning that the Pentium D processor will not support Hyper-Threading technology. The reason is obvious: it is not easy to correctly distribute data streams and balance computing tasks among multiple physical processors and multiple logical processors. For example, if an application needs two computing threads, obviously each thread corresponds to a physical kernel, but what if there are three computing threads? Therefore, in order to reduce the complexity of dual-core Pentium D architecture, Intel decided to focus on the mainstream market.