establish a single line based on CMOS technology.
The section is followed by the three direct and indirect
effects of Moore’s Law to determine classes:
• Microprocessor transistor/chip evolution circa
1971–1985 establish: calculators, home computers,
personal computers, and workstations, and lower
(than minicomputer) priced computers.
• “Minimal” designs establish new classes circa 1990
that use a “fraction” of
the Moore number.
Microsystems evolution
using fractional Moore’s
Law-sized SOCs enable
small, lower-performing,
minimal PC and communication systems including PDAs, PADs, 100,000
cameras, and cell phones.
• Rapidly evolving microprocessors using CMOS
and a simpler RISC
architecture appear as the
“killer micro” circa 1985
to have the same perfor- 100
mance as supercomputers, mainframes,
mini-supercomputers,
super-minicomputers,
0
and minicomputers built 1960
from slowly evolving,
low-density, custom
ECL and bipolar integrated circuits. ECL survived in supercomputers
the longest because of its
speed and ability to
drive the long transmission lines, inherent in
large systems. In the
end, CMOS density and
faster system clocks overtook ECL by 1990.
In the same fashion that killer micros subsumed all
the computer classes by combining, it can be speculated that much higher volume—on the order of hundreds of millions—of SFF devices, may evolve more
rapidly to subsume a large percentage of personal computing. Finally, tens of billions of dust-sized, embedd-able wirelessly connected platforms that connect
everything are likely to be the largest class of all
enabling the state of everything to be sensed, effected,
and communicated with.
4004: Busicom
Calculator
10,000,000
Transistors (1000s) of each microprocessor or microcomputer
1,000,000
10,000
MICROPROCESSORS CIRCA
1971: THE EVOLVING
Intel Itanium FORCE FORCLASSES IN
THE SECOND PERIOD
Multicore Figure 3 shows the micro-
Multithread processors derived directly
SPARC
from the growth of tran-
sistors/chips beginning in
64-bit Alpha 1971. It shows the trajec-
tory of microprocessors
from a 4-bit data path
through, 8-, 16-, 32-, and
64-bit data paths and
address sizes. The figure
shows a second path—the
10 establishment of “mini-
mal” computers that use
less than 50 thousand
1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 transistors for the proces-
sor, leaving the remainder
Figure 3. Moore’s Law, which of the chip for memory and other functions (for
provides more transistors per chip per year, has resulted in example, radio, sensors, analog I/O) enabling the
creating the following computer complete SOC. Increased performance, not shown in
classes: calculators, home the figure, is a third aspect of Moore’s Law that allows
computers, personal computers,
workstations, “multis” to the “killer micro” formation to subsume all the other,
overtake minicomputers, and high-performance classes that used more slowly
clusters using multiple core, multithreading to evolving bipolar TTL and ECL ICs. Calculators,
overtake mainframes and home computers, personal computers, and worksta-
supercomputers. tions were established as classes as the processor on a
chip evolved to have more transistors with wide data
paths and large address spaces as shown in Figure 3.
In 1971, Intel’s 4004 with a 4-bit data path and
ability to address 4KB was developed and pro-
grammed to be the Busicom Calculator; instead of
developing a special chip as had been customary to
implement calculators, a program was written for the
4004 for it to “behave” as or “emulate” a calculator.
In 1972, Intel introduced the 8008 microprocessor
coming from the Datapoint terminal requirement,
with a 8-bit data path and ability to access 16KB that
allowed limited, programmable computers followed by
more powerful 8080-based systems MITS used to
introduce its Altair personal computer kit in 1975,
One Million
1,000
Moore’s
Law
Intel 32-bit 486
386
68000 Apollo Sun Workstation
ARM Embedded and other
8088 IBM PC
System-on-a-chip computers
6502 Apple, Commodore
8080 Altair
8008 Micral, Scelbi
4004: Busicom Calculator
The “killer micro” enabled by fast floating-point
arithmetic subsumed workstations and minicomputers
especially when combined to form the “multi” or multiple microprocessor shared memory computer circa
1985. “Multis” became the component for scalable clusters when interconnected by high-speed, low-latency
networks. Clusters allow arbitrarily large computers that
are limited only by customer budgets. Thus scalability
allows every computer structure from a few thousand
dollars to several hundred million dollars to be arranged
into clusters built from the same components.