A tech enthusiast has coaxed his Intel 4040 CPU single board computer into outrunning ENIAC in a race to calculate Pi to 2035 decimal places. Both Pi computation contenders rely upon several decades-old technology, but despite the 30-year advantage held by the Intel 4040, it was a surprisingly tough race.
The Intel 4040 was fabricated on a 10-micrometer process node and packed in 3,000 transistors. It was designed as a 4-bit processor, running at 740 kHz, and introduced in 1974. Intel’s silicon chip is thus about 30 years younger than the WWII-era Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC, famous for being among the first general-purpose computers. In contrast to the tiny Intel 4040, this wartime computer took up 1,500 sq ft of space and included tens of thousands of resistors, vacuum tubes, capacitors, switches, and relays. You can’t put that on an SBC.
