Intel Ships 1 Billionth Processor As Company Reaches 25th Anniversary Of Intel Architecture Second Billion Could Come as
Soon as 2007
In 1978, a "hand-held" was a transistor radio, computers were gigantic mainframe, immobile machines, and the Internet
was a project by a handful of research scientists. Twenty-five years later, Intel Corporation is marking its 25th year
of delivering silicon products based on Intel architecture, and data from industry analyst firm Mercury Research*
indicates that the company has now shipped more than 1 billion x86 CPUs since that time, sparking a new era of computing
and communication solutions.
“From the 8086 to today's Intel® Pentium® 4 processor, Intel® Xeon™ and Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology, the Intel
Architecture has brought the benefits of digital intelligence to people around the world, making it the most successful
computer architecture in the history of computing,” said Pat Gelsinger, Intel senior vice president and chief technology
officer. “Best of all, it continues to incorporate new innovations and enable new uses, promising to further transform
the world of computing in the years ahead.”
Introduced in 1978, the original 16-bit 8086 chip contained only 29,000 transistors and ran at 5 MHz. The original IBM
PC shipped with a version of the 8086, the 8088 in 1982, ushering in a new age of PC computing. In comparison, today's
Pentium 4 processor contains 55 million transistors and runs more than 600 times faster at 3.06GHz.
1 Billionth Shipped Based on combined desktop, laptop and server shipments, Mercury Research calculates that Intel
reached this milestone in April, roughly 25 years after the debut of the first 8086 microprocessor on June 8, 1978.
Intel's silicon is found in hand-held computing devices, desktop and mobile PCs, servers, networking and communication
gear and machines such as point-of-sale terminals and medical equipment.
Mercury Research calculates that the next billion X86 CPUs could ship far faster than the first billion processors and
could come as early as 2007.
About Intel Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and
communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom. * Other names and
brands may be claimed as the property of others. Intel, Pentium, Xeon and Intel Centrino are trademarks or registered
trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.