When Intel introduced the first x86 CPU (central processing unit) some 25 years ago, a handheld was a transistor radio, computers were big immobile machines, and the Internet was used by a few of research scientists. How things have changed!
Based on combined desktop, laptop and server shipment data from industry analyst firm Mercury Research*, Intel has shipped over one billion x86 CPUs as of April 2003, roughly 25 years after the debut of the first 8086 microprocessor on June 8, 1978.
