Lindisfarne

Pentium is a Registered trademark by Intel in 1993 to name, in a generic way, the Microprocesseur S of the family X86 which followed the Intel 80486. The Pentium mark was used to indicate several major changes (Pentium Pro, Pentium 4) and minor (Pentium MX, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium M, Pentium D) of the Architecture of processor x86. The other marks used parallel to the Pentium mark for the x86 are the marks Celeron for the bottom-of-the-range one and Xeon for the Work stations and data-processing waiters. In 2006, the mark Core replaced Pentium for the principal segment of the market, the Pentium E left in 2007 being bottom-of-the-range Core.

Technically, when one evokes “very short Pentium”, or the “original Pentium”, one indicates the microprocessors X86 of 5th generation, those which would have been called “80586” if Intel had not given up the principle of classification adopted for its preceding microprocessors x86. Pentium was presented for the first time the March 22nd 1993. The Pentium MX is a minor evolution of Pentium. The 6th generation which followed Pentium was introduced with the Pentium Pro.

The Pentium registered trademark

Before using the word Pentium, Intel successively named the Microprocesseur S of its range known as X86 in Intel 8086, Intel 80186, Intel 80286, Intel 80386 and Intel 80486. Informellement, one often shortens these last numbers into 286,386 and 486. The fifth generation was to be logically called Intel 80586. However to fight against the increasingly important competition which took again the last three figures of the numbers of the Microprocesseur S Intel (AMD Am486, IBM 486, etc), Intel tried to deposit these numbers like a Marque, but without success. Indeed, Intel always used the complete numbers starting with 80, therefore the rights on the last figures alone were not granted. The word Pentium proposed by the Lexicon company thus had to be invented to deposit a mark. It is formed of prefix pent , coming from Greek πέντε ( five , reference to the fact that it is about the fifth generation), and of the Latin suffix ium , in particular used for chemical elements like the Aluminum, the Uranium or the Silicium (material whose the Microprocesseur S are manufactured).

Intel continued to use the Pentium mark for the two following generations of its microprocessors: Pentium Pro for the 6th generation and Pentium 4 for 7th. The word Pentium is also used for the minor evolutions of 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th generations of architecture X86: Pentium MX, Pentium II, Pentium III, Pentium M, Pentium D, Pentium E.

In front of the ambiguities created by these re-uses, one uses sometimes the terms “original Pentium” or “i586” in technical language to refer to the fifth generation clearly.

Finally, beginning 2006, the Pentium mark was gradually replaced by the mark Core. The first microprocessor of 8th generation is called Core 2, Core being a minor evolution of the Pentium M. The Pentium E left starting from the June 3rd 2007 are of Core 2 of line entry with 1 Me of Mémoire hiding place of second level instead of 4 Me. Simultaneously with these Pentium E appraissent on the laptops the label Dual Pentium Core. It is acted in fact of a Core Duo which has only one 1 Me of L2 mask to the places of 2 Me on Core Duo truths.

Generations of the Intel microprocessors of the x86 family

Generic names Celeron, Xeon and Dual-Core Pentium recover processors of successive different generations.

Characteristics of original the Pentium microprocessor

  • 3,1 million Transistor S;

  • engraved in 0,8 µm at the origin followed by a recasting (P54C) in 0,6 µm;
  • a Mémoire hiding place instructions and one of data of 8 Kio;
  • architecture Superscalaire: two arithmetic logic units which enables him to achieve more Instruction by cycle; a pipeline (called U) can handle any instruction, while the other (called V) can handle simpler, more common instructions;
  • Data bus 64 bits;
  • instruction set MX starting from the Pentium MX: a whole of vectorial instructions conceived for the applications Multi-media by allowing the treatment of several data in parallel with only one instruction.

The first Pentium chips just twice offered the speed of execution of a processor Intel 80486 per cycle. Fastest from Intel 80486 went almost at the same speed as Pentium of first generation, and some Am486 of AMD was practically equal to Pentium 75. The fact was usual of Intel, whose already version of line entry of Intel 80386SX was slower (but much richer in functionalities) than the last high-ends of sound Intel 80286.

History

First Pentium left at the frequencies clock 66 and 60 MHz. The later versions with 75,90,100,120,133,150,166,200 and 233 megahertz gradually became available. Overdrives for Pentium left at the frequencies of 63 and 83 MHz like option levelling for computers class 80486.

The first Pentium microprocessor had code name interns P5, and was a microprocessor Superscalaire channeled in the order. It was followed P54C, a more compact version which ready for an operation out of biprocessor and was engraved in 0,6 µm instead of 0,8 for the first version.

In first Pentium, a problem in the code of the Unité of floating-point calculation on division was discovered in 1994, known under the name of Bogue of the division of Pentium. These first specimens of Pentium processors are also known for their brittleness and the relatively high production of heat.

In 1997, Intel presented a minor evolution of its Pentium, called Pentium MX (core P55C engraved in 0,35 µm for some), which rested on the same Pentium heart but to which more Mémoire had been assistant hiding place (32 Kio against 16 Kio) and 57 news vectorial instructions in order to make faster the applications multi-media. This processor was declined in frequencies going of 133 MHz with 266 MHz in normal version or lowpower .

  • (*) These models were available only in the configuration Pentium MX for portables.

See too

External bond

  • the Guide of the x86: Intel Pentium

Random links:Bosquejo de la tienda del queso | Montchauvet (Apple-brandy) | Brigitte | Ronald Melzack | Waxahachie | Jovan Jovanović Zmaj | Lindisfarne