Pentium | 1993
Pentium is a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel from 1993 to 2023. The original Pentium was Intel's fifth-generation processor, succeeding the i486. The Pentium brand served as Intel's flagship processor line for over a decade until the introduction of the Intel Core lineup in 2006. Pentium-branded processors released from 2009 onwards were considered entry-level products positioned above the low-end Atom and Celeron series but below the faster Core lineup and workstation/server Xeon series.
Later Pentium processors, which shared little in common with the original Pentiums, were based on both Atom and Core processor architectures. Pentiums based on Atom architectures were the highest-performance implementations of those architectures. Prior to 2017, Pentium processors based on Core architectures were distinguished from the faster, higher-end i-series processors by lower clock speeds and the disabling of certain features, such as hyper-threading, virtualization, and sometimes L3 cache. In 2017, Intel split the Pentium brand into two separate lines: Pentium Silver, aimed at low-power devices using Atom and Celeron architectures, and Pentium Gold, targeting entry-level desktops with existing architectures like Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake.
In September 2022, Intel announced that the Pentium and Celeron brands would be replaced by the new "Intel Processor" branding for low-end processors in laptops from 2023 onwards. This change also applied to desktops using Pentium processors, and both brands were discontinued in 2023 in favor of "Intel Processor" branded processors.
The first Pentium-branded processor, released on March 22, 1993, was based on the P5 microarchitecture. Initially, the processor was to be named 586 or i586, following the naming convention of the 286, 386, and 486 processors from previous generations. However, Intel decided to use the Pentium name to avoid competitors using similar names. The name "Pentium" was chosen by the marketing firm Lexicon Branding. The suffix "-ium" connoted a fundamental element of a computer, like a chemical element, while the prefix "pent-" referred to the fifth generation of x86 architecture.
Due to its success, the Pentium brand continued through several generations of high-end processors, though it briefly disappeared from Intel's roadmaps in 2006, only to re-emerge in 2007. In 1998, Intel introduced the Celeron brand for lower-priced processors. With the 2006 introduction of the Intel Core brand, the Pentium series was expected to be discontinued. However, due to the demand for mid-range dual-core processors, the Pentium brand was repurposed as a mid-range series between the low-end Celeron and high-end Core series, resulting in the release of the Pentium Dual-Core lineup.
In 2009, the "Dual-Core" suffix was removed, and new x86 processors were once again branded simply as Pentium. In 2014, Intel released the Pentium 20th Anniversary Edition to celebrate the brand’s 20th anniversary, which featured unlocked processors that were highly overclockable. In 2017, the Pentium brand was divided into two distinct lines, Pentium Silver for low-power devices based on Atom and Celeron architectures, and Pentium Gold for entry-level desktops using Core architectures.
In September 2022, Intel announced that the Pentium and Celeron brands would be replaced with the "Intel Processor" brand for low-end processors, effective in 2023. As a result, both brands were discontinued, and "Intel Processor" became the new designation for entry-level processors.
