What is the name of the first microprocessor developed by Intel?

The first microprocessor developed by Intel was the Intel 4004.

Released in 1971, the 4004 was a 4-bit central processing unit built onto a single chip. Its origins trace to Busicom, a Japanese calculator company that asked Intel in 1969 to create a chipset for an electronic calculator. Intel engineer Marcian Hoff proposed simplifying Busicom’s original multi-chip design into a more general-purpose processor, while Federico Faggin led the project’s implementation with contributions from Stanley Mazor and Masatoshi Shima.

The first fully operational 4004 was delivered in March 1971 for a Busicom printing-calculator prototype, and general sales began later that year. The chip contained about 2,300 transistors and operated at roughly 740 kilohertz. It formed part of Intel’s MCS-4 family, alongside the 4001 ROM, 4002 RAM and 4003 shift-register chip.

A common mix-up is the Intel 8008, which followed in 1972 and was Intel’s first 8-bit microprocessor. The 8080 and 8086 were later processors, not Intel’s first microprocessor. The 4004 is often described as the first commercially available single-chip microprocessor, although the broader history of who invented the microprocessor includes competing early designs.