While it could be argued that the development of the CPU has it's roots as far back as 1617 with the creation of Napier's Bones, Blaise Pascal's digital adding machine in 1642, or Charles Babbage's Difference Engine and Analytical Engine in the early 1820s - 1830s, the patent of the vacuum tube by Lee De Forest in 1906 was the actual starting point for John Atanasoff & Clifford Berry's first electronic computer in 1937, incorporating the binary system still …showed first 75 words of 3052 total…

…showed last 75 words of 3052 total…it seems Gordon Moore was right about the growth in the speed of the CPU & now with 64-bit processors & new software programs to run them, I'm sure we are only at the beginning of what is likely to be an ever-expanding demand for the new technology. I found this information at 3 different sites: www.Intel.com, www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/comphist/, and www.geocities.com/cfleri/history.html, www.pcmech.com/show/processors/35/1.