page_title: Pentium
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Pentium / Overview
caption_attribution_description: English: Intel Pentium Microprocessor (Observe) A80502100 sSpec: SY007 iCOMP Index (1.0): 815 Date of Manufacture: 21st week of 1996
context_page_description: Pentium is a brand used for a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel since 1993. In their form as of November 2011, Pentium processors are considered entry-level products that Intel rates as "two stars", meaning that they are above the low-end Atom and Celeron series, but below the faster Intel Core lineup, and workstation Xeon series.
  As of 2017, Pentium processors have little more than their name in common with earlier Pentiums, which were Intel's flagship processor for over a decade until the introduction of the Intel Core line in 2006. They are based on both the architecture used in Atom and that of Core processors. In the case of Atom architectures, Pentiums are the highest performance implementations of the architecture. Pentium processors with Core architectures prior to 2017 were distinguished from the faster, higher-end i-series processors by lower clock rates and disabling some features, such as hyper-threading, virtualization and sometimes L3 cache.
context_section_description: During development, Intel generally identifies processors with codenames, such as Prescott, Willamette, Coppermine, Katmai, Klamath, or Deschutes. These usually become widely known, even after the processors are given official names on launch.
  The original Pentium-branded CPUs were expected to be named 586 or i586, to follow the naming convention of prior generations (286, i386, i486).  However, as the firm wanted to prevent their competitors from branding their processors with similar names (as AMD had done with their Am486), Intel filed a trademark application on the name in the United States, but was denied because a series of numbers was considered to lack trademark distinctiveness.
  Following Intel's prior series of 8086, 80186, 80286, 80386, and 80486 microprocessors, the firm's first P5-based microprocessor was released as the original Intel Pentium on March 22, 1993. 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 technology 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 repurposed to be Intel's mid-range processor series, 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.
  In 2014, Intel released the Pentium 20th Anniversary Edition, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Pentium brand. The processors are unlocked and highly overclockable.
  In 2017, Intel split Pentium into two line-ups. Pentium Silver targets low-power devices and shares architecture with Atom and Celeron, while Pentium Gold targets entry-level desktops and uses existing architecture, such as Kaby Lake and Coffee Lake.
caption: A 100 MHz Pentium processor manufactured in 1996
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