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Intel's Pentium Chip Turns 20 Today
girlmad writes "Intel's Pentium processor was launched 20 years ago today, a move that led to the firm becoming the dominant supplier of computer chips across the globe. This article has some original iComp benchmark scores, rating the 66MHz Pentium at a heady 565, compared with 297 for the 66MHz 486DX2, which was the fastest chip available prior to the Pentium launch."
From his royal Weirdness...
All About the Pentiums
Mess not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
The rest of us made do with 60MHz versions.
It really had to hurt Intel to have to back down on clock speeds for once. They didn't do that again until NetBurst burst.
And they did it for the same reason. The 60Mhz Pentium was the end of the line for 5V CPU's. It suffered from overheating problems due to its exceptionally high power consumption. The P90, 486DX2 and later Pentiums were 3.3V.
It is also questionable the the P66 dethroned the 486DX2. The 50Mhz 486DX was widely believed to be faster than the 66Mhz 486DX2.
For quite a bit of time, Intel and AMD CPUs used the same motherboards and chipsets. You'd get the motherboard you want, and then decide whether you wanted an Intel or AMD CPU in there.
In fact, the whole reason for "Slot 1" with the Pentium II was to put a stop to this. They patented the slot mechanism and locked AMD out. I'm not sure why they couldn't patent the socket type; I'm guessing there was a legal reason why the pin arrangements weren't patentable.
No, Slot 1 was to allow them to put the cache on the same board as the processor so they could speed it up. It quickly became unnecessary as later Pentium IIs and all(?) Pentium IIIs put the cache on die, making the slot unnecessary and expensive.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.