Japanese store puts up for sale the Intel D8088-2, originally launched more than 40 years ago

We are used to processors with a lot of transistors and power, but it has not always been this way. A few decades ago the number of transistors was much smaller than today. The Japanese Akihabara store has put on sale the Intel D8088-2 processor, which was manufactured in 1978. This interesting processor is 42 years old and rather is a relic of the past.

To give us an idea, this Intel D8088-2 processor has only 29.000 transistors. For example, the Ryzen 9 3950X has about 3.800 billion transistors, which allows you to see the evolution of the processors. In addition, this processor has a 16-bit design and was manufactured under the 3um process.

Japanese store sells Intel D8088-2 processor

They are not the only interesting peculiarities of the Intel D8088-2 processors seen today. This Intel processor was manufactured at 3000nm, while the Tiger Lake currently is manufactured at 10nm. The frequency of the Intel D8088-2 is only 8MHz, while most desktop processors run at more than 4.0GHz.

Akihabara has released a large number of these 'new' Intel D8088-2 processors. Each of these processors is sold for about 500 yen, which is about 4.2 euros per processor.

The Japanese store does not offer guarantees of the operation of these processors. It really is not very relevant that this processor, the interesting thing is that it is a piece of the history of modern computing. Of course, this sale is more focused on collectors and computer lovers than anything else.

Surely someone will have to connect the intel D8088-2 to a board and will fiddle with it and do little things. It is possible that many who buy it will make it serve and tell their exploits on social networks (if it works). So in the coming months we could have surprises.

Source: MD