Processors are probably the most single interesting piece of hardware in your computer. They have a rich and neat history history, dating all the way back to 1971 with the first commercially available microprocessor, the Intel 4004. As you can imagine and have no doubt seen yourself, since then, technology has improved by leaps and bounds.

We’re going to show you a history of the processor, starting with the Intel 8086. It was the processor IBM chose for the first PC and only has a neat history from then on out.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in 2001, but as of December 2016, we’ve updated it to include new advancements in the field since then.