In 2009, the ' Dual- Core' suffix was dropped, and new x86 microprocessors started carrying the plain Pentium name again. However, due to a demand for mid-range dual-core processors, the Pentium brand was re-purposed to be Intel's mid-range processor series, in between the Celeron and Core series, continuing with the Pentium Dual-Core line. 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. In 1998, Intel introduced the Celeron brand for low-priced microprocessors. In 2006, the Pentium brand briefly disappeared from Intel's roadmaps, only to re-emerge in 2007. 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.ĭue to its success, the Pentium brand would continue through several generations of high-end processors beyond the original. Marketing firm Lexicon Branding was hired to coin a name for the new processor.

However, as the company wanted to prevent their competitors from branding their processors with similar names, as AMD had done with their Am486, Intel attempted to file a trademark on the name in the United States, only to be denied because a series of numbers was not considered distinct.įollowing Intel's previous series of 8086, 80186, 80286, 80386, and 80486 microprocessors, the company's first P5-based microprocessor was released as the original Intel Pentium on March 22, 1993. Comparing the Intel Core 2 Duo Processor and the AMD Sempron the AMD processor, AMD used 7 less watts of power less than the Intel version. When the duo core processors came out, Intel tried changed to a 75 watt TDP but that did nothing. The original Pentium branded CPUs were expected to be named 586 or i586, to follow the naming convention of previous generations (286, i386, i486). AMD had the initial advantage because the Pentium 4 processors had a 150 watt TDP.

History of pentium processors