Pentium

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Pentium is a registered trademark that is included in the brand names of many of Intel's x86-compatible microprocessors, both single- and multi-core.^[1] The original Pentium^[2] CPU was released in 1993 with Intel's fifth-generation "P5" microarchitecture (in Greek penta means 'five'), following Intel's previous series of 8086, 80186, 80286, 80386, and 80486 processors (model numbers cannot always be trademarked^[3]). Pentium was then used in brand names for later generation processors (listed below), distinguished by suffixes such as "Pro", "II", "III", "4", "D" and "Dual-Core".

In 1998, Intel introduced the Celeron^[2] brand for low-priced processors. With the 2006 introduction of the "upper" Core 2 brand, there was no plan to use the Pentium trademark anymore, but Intel developed a line of low-end dual-core processors under the Pentium Dual-Core name at the request of laptop manufacturers.^[4] The Pentium brand thus lost its "upper" position and was repositioned between the Core 2 and Celeron Dual-Core lines as of 2007.^[5][6]

In 2009, the "Dual-Core" suffix was dropped, and new processors started carrying the plain Pentium name again.

Brands with Pentium trademark

During development many processors are given working names which are widely known, such as Prescott, Willamette, Coppermine, Katmai, Klamath and Deschutes.^[7] Intel has given these processors official Pentium names on launch.

Brands of CPUs using the Pentium trademark:

• Pentium
• Pentium OverDrive
• Pentium Pro
• Pentium II, Pentium II Xeon
• Pentium III, Pentium III Xeon
• Pentium 4, Mobile Pentium 4, Mobile Pentium 4 M, Pentium 4 Extreme Edition
• Pentium M
• Pentium D, Pentium Extreme Edition
• Pentium Dual-Core

Families of compatible processors made by Intel but not using the Pentium trademark:

• Celeron
• Xeon
• A100
• Core
• Core 2
• Core i7
• Atom

Origins of Pentium trademark

The original Pentium branded CPUs were expected to be named 586 or i586, to follow the naming convention of previous generations (286, i386, i486). However, Intel was unable to persuade the court of law to allow them to trademark numbers (such as "i486"), in order to prevent their competitors from branding their processors with similar names, as AMD had done with their Am486. (The "586" number was later used by AMD, Cyrix and NexGen in their respective 5k86, 5x86 and Nx586 CPU brand names).

Intel enlisted the help of Lexicon Branding to create a brand that could be trademarked. The name 'Pentium', was derived from the Greek pente ( 'πέντε' ), meaning 'five', and the Latin ending -ium for neutral nouns. The Pentium brand was very successful, and has been maintained through several generations of processors, from the Pentium Pro to the Pentium Extreme Edition and further. Although not used for marketing purposes, Pentium series processors are still given numerical product codes, starting with 80500 for the original Pentium chip.

Current use of the trademark

The Core, introduced in early 2006, was the first Intel mainstream brand for mobile CPUs which did not contain the Pentium trademark. It replaced the Pentium M brand. With the 2006 introduction of the "upper" Core 2 brand, there was no plan to use the Pentium trademark anymore, but "Intel developed the Pentium Dual-Core at the request of laptop manufacturers".^[4] In 2007, the Pentium Dual-Core brand (of dual-core mainstream processors) revived the "Pentium" trademark.^[5] So, the brand containing Pentium trademark lost its "upper" position and became "mainstream" between the Core 2 and Celeron. The Pentium Dual-Core brand referred to laptop CPUs previously branded as the Core, and newer desktop ones with 1 MB of cache, which 2 MB-cache "cousins" were branded as the Core 2. In 2008, the Pentium brand was to replace the Pentium Dual-Core.^[6] The Intel website is currently showing "Pentium" rather than "Pentium Dual-Core".

References and footnotes