The CPU was based on data stored on shift-registers and instructions stored on ROM (read only memory). approached Intel to design a family of seven chips for an electronic calculator, three of which constituted a CPU specialized for making different calculating machines. The project traces its history to 1969, when Busicom Corp.

He later used the SGT at Intel to obtain the unprecedented integration necessary to make the first single chip microprocessor. The developer of the original SGT at Fairchild was Federico Faggin who designed the first commercial integrated circuit (IC) that used the new technology, proving its superiority for analog/digital applications ( Fairchild 3708 in 1968). The innovative 4004 chip design served as a model on how to use the SGT for complex logic and memory circuits, thus accelerating the adoption of the SGT by the world’s semiconductor industry. This step-function increase in performance made possible a single-chip CPU, replacing the existing multi-chip CPUs. Compared to the incumbent technology, the SGT integrated on the same chip area twice the number of transistors with five times the operating speed. The 4004 was the first significant example of large scale integration, showcasing the superiority of the MOS silicon gate technology (SGT). Sold for US$60 (equivalent to $400 in 2021, $449.43 in 2023 ), it was the first commercially produced microprocessor, and the first in a long line of Intel CPUs. The Intel 4004 is a 4-bit central processing unit (CPU) released by Intel Corporation in 1971.

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