An extensive list would be pretty difficult, but I wanted to build a list of a typical processor every few years. This gets more difficult in later years as more variations of processors exist and companies stopped giving them clear names. You can find a more complete list at Transistor Count on Wikipedia.
I’m not trying to compare how “good” these numbers are, only showing a progression. I think it’s also important to note that a lot of those transistors are not added complexity but cache, so the progression isn’t necessarily what you think. But it does show increased complexity and the ability to fit more into less space.
| Year | CPU | Transistor Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1975 | MOS Technology 6502 | 4,528 |
| 1978 | Intel 8086 | 29,000 |
| 1979 | Motorola 68000 | 68,000 |
| 1982 | Intel 80286 | 134,000 |
| 1984 | Motorola 68020 | 190,000 |
| 1985 | Intel 80386 | 275,000 |
| 1987 | Motorola 68030 | 273,000 |
| 1989 | Intel 80486 | 1,180,235 |
| 1990 | Motorola 68040 | 1,200,000 |
| 1993 | Intel Pentium | 3,100,000 |
| 1994 | PowerPC 601 | 2,800,000 |
| 1997 | Pentium II | 7,500,000 |
| 1999 | Pentium III | 9,500,000 |
| 2000 | Pentium 4 | 42,000,000 |
| 2005 | Cell | 250,000,000 |
| 2006 | Core 2 Duo Conroe | 291,000,000 |
| 2008 | Intel i7 | 731,000,000 |
| 2011 | Six-core Core i7/8-core Xeon E5 | 2,270,000,000 |
| 2014 | Xeon Ivy Bridge-EX (15-core) | 4,310,000,000 |
Here are Apple’s CPUs. Again, how “good” these numbers are isn’t the point, just that there’s a progression here.
| Year | CPU | Transistor Count |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Apple A7 | 1,000,000,000 |
| 2014 | Apple A8 | 2,000,000,000 |
| 2016 | Apple A10 Fusion | 3,300,000,000 |
| 2017 | Apple A11 Bionic | 4,300,000,000 |
| 2018 | Apple A12 Bionic | 6,900,000,000 |
| 2019 | Apple A13 Bionic | 8,500,000,000 |
| 2020 | Apple A14 Bionic | 11,800,000,000 |
| 2020 | Apple M1 | 16,000,000,000 |
My first computer was a TRS-80 Color Computer, based on a Motorola 6809 launched in 1978 with 9,000 transistors. It was about 52mm by 14mm (or 728mm2). The Apple M1 has about 1.7 million times the number of transistors. I don’t think we have exact dimensions of the M1, but it’s certainly smaller than 13mm by 13mm (less than 170mm2).
Chris’s first CPU was the 6502, which launched in 1975 with about half the number of transistors of the 6809.