Intel 4004 - The World's First Microprocessor


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The 4004 provided the basic building blocks that are still found in today's microcomputers: the arithmetic and logic unit and the control unit. The 4-bit Intel 4004 ran at a clock speed of 108 kHz and contained 2300 transistors. It processed data in 4 bits, but its instructions were 8 bits long. The 4004 addressed up to 1,024 bits of program memory and up to 4,096 bits of data memory. It had sixteen 4-bit (or eight 8-bit) general-purpose registers, and an instruction set containing 46 instructions.

The Intel 4004 was a Harvard architecture microprocessor with separate program and data address spaces. The program data for the 4004 was held in the Intel 4001 ROM (Read Only Memory). The 4001 had 2048 bits of memory. It was organized as 256 8-bit words. The working memory of an Intel 4004 system was provided by the Intel 4002 RAM (Random Access Memory). The 4002 had 320 bits of memory. It was organized as 4 registers of twenty 4-bit characters. The 4004 allowed for four banks of two 4002-1s and two 4002-2s. The Intel 4003 was a multi-function I/O device for the Intel 4004. The 4003 contained one shift register of 10-bits.

The 4004 chip die was 1/8th inch wide by 1/6th inch long. This small microprocessor had more computing power than the first electronic computer, the ENIAC, which occupied 3,000 cubic feet and weighed 30 tons.


