Page "Central processing unit" Paragraph 15

In the 1970s the fundamental inventions by Federico Faggin ( Silicon Gate MOS ICs with self aligned gates along with his new random logic design methodology ) changed the design and implementation of CPUs forever.

Since the introduction of the first commercially available microprocessor ( the Intel 4004 ) in 1970, and the first widely used microprocessor ( the Intel 8080 ) in 1974, this class of CPUs has almost completely overtaken all other central processing unit implementation methods.

Mainframe and minicomputer manufacturers of the time launched proprietary IC development programs to upgrade their older computer architectures, and eventually produced instruction set compatible microprocessors that were backward-compatible with their older hardware and software.

Combined with the advent and eventual success of the ubiquitous personal computer, the term CPU is now applied almost exclusively to microprocessors.

Several CPUs can be combined in a single processing chip.