Pentium history and specifications

Pentium Intel released its original Pentium Processor, also known as the Pentium 1, on March 22, 1993. The Pentium 1 replaced the Inte1486 as Intel's mainstream microprocessor for personal computing applications. While the Pentium 1 processors were specifically designed for use in desktop computers, later members of the Pentium family could accommodate laptops and other mobile devices. Reviewing some of the Pentium 1 's specifications can help you better understand the microprocessor's capabilities.

The name Pentium is originally derived from the Greek word pente, meaning five" (as the original Pentium processors used Intel's fifth-generation microarchitecture, the PS), and the Latin ending -ium. The current Pentium processors only share the name but are in fact based on the same processor chips that are used in the Intel Core but are typically used with a lower clock frequency, a partially disabled L3 cache and some of the advanced features such as hyper- threading and virtualization disabled.

History The original Pentium branded CPUs were expected to be named 586 or 1586, to follow he naming convention of previous generations (286, 1386, 1486). However, as the company wanted to prevent their competitors from branding their processors with similar names (as AMD had done with their Am486), Intel attempted to file a trademark on the name in the United States, only to be denied because a series of numbers was not considered distinct. Following Intel's previous series of 8086, 80186, 80286, 80386, and 80486 microprocessors, the company's first PS-based microprocessor was released as the original Intel Pentium on March 22, 1993.

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Marketing firm Lexicon Branding was hired to coin a name for the new processor. The suffix -ium was chosen as it could connote a fundamental ingredient of a computer, like a chemical element, while the prefix pent- could refer to the fifth generation of x86. Due to its success, the Pentium brand would continue through several generations of high-end processors. In 2006, the name briefly disappeared from Intel's roadmaps, only to re-emerge in 2007. In 1998, Intel introduced the Celeron brand for low-priced microprocessors.

With the 2006 introduction of the Intel Core brand as the company's new flagship line of processors, the Pentium series was to be discontinued. However, due to a demand for mid-range dual-core processors, the Pentium brand was re-purposed to be Intel's mid-range processor series, in between the Celeron and Core series, continuing with the Pentium Dual- Core line. In 2009, the "Dual-core" suffix was dropped, and new x86 microprocessors started carrying the plain Pentium name again.

Specs clock Speed

The original Intel Pentium 1 Processor could operate with a clock speed of either 66 MHZ or 60 MHZ. Bus speed refers to the speed at which a microprocessor's front-side bus or FSB can transmit data simultaneously. An FSB is the digital pathway that connects a microprocessor to the other components comprising a computer's motherboard. The higher a microprocessor's bus speed, the faster it can communicate with the rest of a computer system. The original, 1993 Intel Pentium 1 Processor could provide bus speeds of 66 MHz and 60 MHz, while the 1994 Pentium 1 could provide bus speeds of 6 MHZ, 60 MHZ and 50 MHZ.

Manufacturing Process

Intel manufactured the original Intel Pentium 1 Processor using an 0. 8-micron, bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor or BiCMOS circuit. This circuit integrates bipolar and CMOS transistors, allowing the Pentium 1 to perform faster and with more processing power than it could if using one type of transistor over the other. The later, 1994 version of the Pentium 1 also used BiCMOS technology. However, the size of this microprocessor's BiCMOS circuit was smaller, at either 0. or 0. 35 microns depending on the specific model.

Transistor Count

The original Intel Pentium 1 Processor has a transistor count of 3. 1 million, while the 1994 version had a transistor count of 3. 3 million. The number of transistors a microprocessor has correlates positively to how complex that microprocessor's integrated circuit is. A higher degree of circuit complexity translates to a higher processing performance. Storage Specs Both the original and 1994 Pentium 1 processors had Level 1 cache storage capacities f 8kB and addressable memory storage capacities of 46B.

Also known as the primary cache, the Ll cache is a small, integrated storage location that a microprocessor can use to store and rapidly-access commonly-accessed data. Storing data in an Ll cache increases processing time by eliminating the need for the microprocessor to communicate directly with a computer's primary memory. Addressable memory, instead of making copies of actual data like an Ll cache, searches for data in a computer's primary memory and then makes copies of that data's location.

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