Intel Pentium
From Computer History Wiki
The Intel Pentium was the successor to the Intel 80486 in the Intel x86 line of microprocessors. It was originally going to be named the 80586, but a name consisting of only a number could not be trademarked, which led to the switch to the new name.
Externally, it is functionally the same CPU as the 486, but includes a number of internal improvements to increase its performance:
- Two 8K byte caches, one each for code and data, so that loops processing large arrays will not empty the cache.
- The main memory bus is 64 bits wide, double that of the 486.
- Branch prediction logic was added.
- Two separate integer processing units ('U-pipe' and 'V-pipe') make it a superscalar CPU, capable of executing two instructions per clock tick.
- Improvements in the numeric co-processor made it 5 times faster than that of the 486.
The memory management unit was upgraded to support 4 Mbyte pages as well as the 4Kbyte pages of the earlier machines. In addition, parity was added to the address bus.