A History of Microprocessor Transistor Count

1971 to 2013
Source: Wikipedia, August 29, 2013

Processor
Intel 4004
Intel 8008
MOS Technology
6502
Motorola 6800
Intel 8080
RCA 1802
Intel 8085
Zilog Z80
Motorola 6809
ARM 1
ARM 2
Intel 8086
Intel 8088
ARM 6
Intel 80186
Motorola 68000
Intel 80286
Intel 80386
ARM 3
ARM 7
Intel 80486
R4000
Pentium
AMD K5
Pentium Pro
Pentium II
AMD K6
Pentium III

Transistor
count
2,300
3,500

Date of
introduction
1971
1972

3,510[citation needed]
4,100
4,500
5,000
6,500
8,500
9,000
25,000[1]
25,000
29,000
29,000
30,000
55,000
68,000
134,000
275,000
300,000[2]
578977[3]
1,180,235
1,350,000
3,100,000
4,300,000
5,500,000[4]
7,500,000
8,800,000
9,500,000

Manufacturer

Process

Area

Intel
Intel

10 m
10 m

12 mm
14 mm

1975

MOS Technology

8 m

21 mm

1974
1974
1974
1976
1976
1978
1985
1986
1978
1979
1991
1982
1979
1982
1985
1989
1994
1989
1991
1993
1996
1995
1997
1997
1999

Motorola
Intel
RCA
Intel
Zilog
Motorola
Acorn
Acorn
Intel
Intel
ARM
Intel
Motorola
Intel
Intel
Acorn
ARM
Intel
MIPS
Intel
AMD
Intel
Intel
AMD
Intel

6 m
6 m
5 m
3 m
4 m
5 m

16 mm
20 mm
27 mm
20 mm
18 mm
21 mm

3 m
3 m

33 mm
33 mm

3 m
4 m
44 mm
1.5 m 49 mm
1.5 m 104 mm
68.51 mm
1 m 173 mm
1.0 m 213 mm
0.8 m 294 mm
0.5 m 251 mm
0.5 m 307 mm
0.35 m 195 mm
0.35 m 162 mm
0.25 m 128 mm

Processor
AMD K6-III
AMD K7
ARM Cortex-A9
Pentium 4
Atom
Barton
AMD K8
Itanium 2 McKinley
Cell
Core 2 Duo
Itanium 2 Madison
6M
AMD K10 quad-core
2M L3
Itanium 2 with 9MB
cache
Core i7 (Quad)
AMD K10 quad-core
6M L3
POWER6
Six-Core Opteron
2400
16-Core SPARC T3
Quad-Core + GPU
Core i7
Six-Core Core i7
(Gulftown)
8-Core AMD
Bulldozer
8-core POWER7
32M L3
Quad-Core + GPU
AMD Trinity
Quad-Core + GPU
Core i7
Quad-core z196[9]
Dual-Core Itanium 2
Six-Core Xeon 7400

Transistor
count
21,300,000
22,000,000
26,000,000[6]
42,000,000
47,000,000
54,300,000
105,900,000
220,000,000
241,000,000
291,000,000

Date of
Manufacturer Process
introduction
1999
AMD
0.25 m
1999
AMD
0.25 m
2007
ARM
2000
Intel
180 nm
2008
Intel
45 nm
2003
AMD
130 nm
2003
AMD
130 nm
2002
Intel
180 nm
2006
Sony/IBM/Toshiba 90 nm
2006
Intel
65 nm

Area
118 mm
184 mm
217 mm
24 mm
101 mm
193 mm
421 mm
221 mm
143 mm

410,000,000

2003

Intel

130 nm 374 mm

463,000,000[5]

2007

AMD

65 nm

592,000,000

2004

Intel

130 nm 432 mm

731,000,000

2008

Intel

45 nm

263 mm

758,000,000[5]

2008

AMD

45 nm

258 mm

789,000,000

2007

IBM

65 nm

341 mm

904,000,000

2009

AMD

45 nm

346 mm

1,000,000,000[7]

2010

Sun/Oracle

40 nm

377 mm

1,160,000,000

2011

Intel

32 nm

216 mm

1,170,000,000

2010

Intel

32 nm

240 mm

1,200,000,000[8]

2012

AMD

32nm

315 mm

1,200,000,000

2010

IBM

45 nm

567 mm

1,303,000,000

2012

AMD

32 nm

246 mm

1,400,000,000

2012

Intel

22 nm

160 mm

1,400,000,000
1,700,000,000[10]
1,900,000,000

2010
2006
2008

IBM
Intel
Intel

45 nm
90 nm
45 nm

512 mm
596 mm
503 mm

283 mm

Processor
Quad-Core Itanium
Tukwila
8-core POWER7+
80M L3
Six-Core Core i7/8Core Xeon E5
(Sandy Bridge-E/EP)
8-Core Xeon
Nehalem-EX
10-Core Xeon
Westmere-EX
Six-core zEC12
8-Core Itanium
Poulson
62-Core Xeon Phi
Xbox One Main SoC

Transistor
count

Date of
introduction

Manufacturer

Process

Area

2,000,000,000[11]

2010

Intel

65 nm

699 mm

2,100,000,000

2012

IBM

32 nm

567 mm

[12]

2011

Intel

32 nm

434 mm

2,300,000,000[13]

2010

Intel

45 nm

684 mm

2,600,000,000

2011

Intel

32 nm

512 mm

2,750,000,000

2012

IBM

32 nm

597 mm

3,100,000,000

2012

Intel

32 nm

544 mm

5,000,000,000
5,000,000,000

2012
2013

Intel
Microsoft

22 nm

2,270,000,000

363 mm