Microprocessors - 1-bit to 64-bit Generations

About this Artwork

This listing is for an artwork that displays a historical look at devices capable of doing digital arithmetic from 1-bit devices to 64-bit microprocessors.  Chips have evolved from doing a simple addition of two bits to complex mathematical operations on 64-bit numbers. The chips in this display track the progress from logic chip adders to true microprocessors. The most important criterion for determining the bits of a microprocessor is the size of the accumulator or general-purpose registers. Second is the size of the data path, and the third is the address space size. As an example, if all are 16-bits in size, then the device is called a 16-bit microprocessor. If it is a mix, well, the naming controversy starts. 

The chips used in this display are representative of their respective generations. Here are the devices used in this artwork:

1-bit Half Adder, Motorola 353
1-bit Full Adder, Signetics 7480
4-bit Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU),  Texas Instruments 74181
4-bit Microprocessor, AMD 2901
8-bit Microprocessor, Intel 8751
16-bit Microprocessor, Signetics 68000
32-bit Microprocessor, IBM PowerPC 601
64-bit Microprocessor, AMD Opteron

Framing: 

The artwork is framed in an 11"x 14" black shadow box frame, with glass. All framing materials are acid-free. A narrative about the artwork that includes the artist’s signature is placed on the back of the artwork.

Please note:  The look of the artifacts in the artworks may vary, each piece is unique.