Intel Pentium 4 (Midpoint of Moore's Law)
The turn of the millennium processing power.
The Intel Pentium 4 was released, representing the peak of single-core consumer CPU speeds before the industry shifted to multi-core designs. It serves as a perfect mid-point on the Singularity timeline to track the velocity of Moore's Law.
Open in interactive timeline →Key Numbers
- Transistors (1971)
- 2,300
- Transistors (2000)
- 42,000,000
Verified Facts
- By 2000, engineers had shrunk transistors down to 180 nanometers, allowing them to pack 42 million transistors onto a single piece of silicon.
- This represented a staggering 18,000x increase in transistor density compared to the original Intel 4004 (2,300 transistors) released just three decades prior.
- It pushed clock speeds ever higher (eventually past 3 GHz); the first consumer chips over 1 GHz were actually the AMD Athlon and Intel Pentium III, both in March 2000.
Frequently Asked Questions
What was Intel Pentium 4 (Midpoint of Moore's Law)?
The Intel Pentium 4 was released, representing the peak of single-core consumer CPU speeds before the industry shifted to multi-core designs. It serves as a perfect mid-point on the Singularity timeline to track the velocity of Moore's Law.
When did Intel Pentium 4 (Midpoint of Moore's Law) happen?
Intel Pentium 4 (Midpoint of Moore's Law): 2000 CE.
Why does Intel Pentium 4 (Midpoint of Moore's Law) matter?
The turn of the millennium processing power.
Sources & Further Reading
Cite This Page
AskHistoryAI. “Intel Pentium 4 (Midpoint of Moore's Law).” AskHistoryAI — Interactive Timeline of Everything. Updated 2026-09-11. https://askhistoryai.com/event/tech-pentium4/
Every fact on this page is checked against the published fact ledger and methodology; sources are listed above.