Intel TeraHertz

Intel TeraHertz

Intel TeraHertz was Intel's new design for transistors. It uses new materials such as zirconium dioxide which is a superior insulator reducing current leakages. Using zirconium dioxide instead of silicon dioxide, this transistor can reduce the current leakage, and thus reduces power consumption while still working at higher speed and using lower voltages. One element of this structure is a "depleted substrate transistor," which is a type of CMOS device where the transistor is built in an ultra-thin layer of silicon on top of an embedded layer of insulation. This ultra-thin silicon layer is fully depleted to maximize drive current when the transistor is turned on, allowing the transistor to switch on and off faster. In contrast, when the transistor is turned off, unwanted current leakage is minimized by the thin insulating layer. This allows the depleted substrate transistor to have 100 times less leakage than traditional silicon-on-insulator schemes. The transistor can therefore be very small, very fast and consume less power. Another important element is the development of a new material that replaces silicon dioxide on the wafer. All transistors have a "gate-dielectric," a material that separates a transistor's "gate" from its active region (the gate controls the on-off state of the transistor). According to Intel, the new design could use only 0.6 volts. Intel TeraHertz was unveiled in 2001. As of 2015[update], it is not used in processors.

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Intel P55

The Intel P55 is the first desktop chipset from Intel based on the PCH chipset design. The P55 Express chipset uses the LGA 1156 socket. Compatible CPUs include the first generation Core i series i3, i5, and i7 processor line along with a Pentium G6950. Like any PCH chipset, the P55 uses a Direct Media Interface connection

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Intel 80486SX

Intel's i486SX was a modified Intel 486DX microprocessor with its floating-point unit (FPU) disabled. It was intended as a lower-cost CPU for use in low-end systems. Computer manufacturers that used these processors include Packard Bell, Compaq, ZEOS and IBM.

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Intel 4004

The Intel 4004 is a 4-bit central processing unit (CPU) released by Intel Corporation in 1971. It was the first microprocessor, and the first in a long line of Intel CPUs. The chip design, implemented with the MOS silicon gate technology, started in April 1970, and was created by Federico Faggin who led the project from beginning to completion in 1971. Marcian Hoff formulated and led the architectural proposal in 1969, and Masatoshi Shima contributed to the architecture and later to the logic design. The first delivery of a fully operational 4004 occurred in March 1971 to Busicom Corp. of Japan for its 141-PF printing calculator engineering prototype (now displayed in the Computer History Museum - Mountain View, Ca) . This calculator for which the 4004 was originally designed and built as a custom chip was first commercially available in July 1971. The 4004 was the first random logic circuit integrated in one chip using the MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) silicon gate technology (SGT). It was the most advanced integrated circuit (IC) design undertaken up until then. Hoff, head of Intel's Application Research department, had formulated an architectural proposal consisting of a block architecture with an instruction set during 1969, while talking with Busicom engineers led by Shima and with the assistance of Stan Mazor. Hoff and Mazor were not MOS chip designers and did not participate in the actual design or development of the 4004. The chip design was realized independently in the MOS department, different from Application Research. It could only be realized by a designer with deep knowledge of MOS process technology and of the new SGT. Faggin was hired at Intel in April 1970 from Fairchild Semiconductor to be the project leader and designer of the 4004 and he transferred to manufacturing a fully functional chip in March 1971. Faggin brought to Intel his mastery of the SGT that he had invented at Fairchild (in 1968) and used it to develop his novel methodology for random chip design that was key to making the first and all the early Intel microprocessors. Shima, representing Busicom, was engaged with Hoff and Mazor in the architectural phase during 1969 and he also assisted Faggin with the final logic design for 6 months in 1970. In November 1971, with the prophetic advert "Announcing a new era in integrated electronics", the 4004 was made commercially available to the general market. The 4004 was the first monolithic processor, fully integrated in one small chip. Such a feat of integration was made possible by the use of the new silicon gate technology for integrated circuits, originally developed by Faggin (with Tom Klein) at Fairchild Semiconductor in 1968, which allowed twice the number of random-logic transistors and an increase in speed by a factor of five compared to the incumbent MOS aluminum gate technology. The 4004 microprocessor, the 4001 ROM, 4002 RAM, and 4003 Shift Register constituted the four chips in the Intel MCS-4 chip set. With these components, small computers with varying amounts of memory and I/O facilities could be built.