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pentium

pentium


  2  definitions  found 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  Pentium  n.  The  name  given  to  Intel's  P5  chip,  the  successor  to 
  the  80486.  The  name  was  chosen  because  of  difficulties  Intel  had  in 
  trademarking  a  number.  It  suggests  the  number  five  (implying  586)  while 
  (according  to  Intel)  conveying  a  meaning  of  strength  "like  titanium". 
  Among  hackers,  the  plural  is  frequently  `pentia'.  See  also  {Pentagram 
  Pro}. 
 
  Intel  did  not  stick  to  this  convention  when  naming  its  P6  processor 
  the  Pentium  Pro;  many  believe  this  is  due  to  difficulties  in 
  selling  a  chip  with  sex"  in  its  name  Successor  chips  have  been  called 
  `Pentium  II'  and  `Pentium  III'. 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  Pentium 
 
    {Intel}'s  {superscalar}  successor  to  the  {486}. 
  It  has  two  32-bit  486-type  integer  {pipelines}  with  dependency 
  checking.  It  can  execute  a  maximum  of  two  instructions  per 
  cycle.  It  does  pipelined  {floating-point}  and  performs 
  {branch  prediction}.  It  has  16  {kilobytes}  of  on-chip 
  {cache},  a  64-bit  memory  interface,  8  32-bit  general-purpose 
  {registers}  and  8  80-bit  {floating-point}  registers.  It  is 
  built  from  3.1  million  transistors  on  a  262.4  mm^2  die  with 
  ~2.3  million  transistors  in  the  core  logic.  Its  {clock  rate} 
  is  66MHz,  heat  dissipation  is  16W,  integer  performance  is  64.5 
  {SPECint92},  {floating-point}  performance  56.9  {SPECfp92}. 
 
  It  is  called  Pentium"  because  it  is  the  fifth  in  the  80x86 
  line  It  would  have  been  called  the  80586  had  a  US  court  not 
  ruled  that  you  can't  trademark  a  number. 
 
  The  successors  are  the  {Pentium  Pro}  and  {Pentium  II}. 
 
  A  {floating-point  division  bug 
  (ftp://ftp.isi.edu/pub/carlton/pentium/FAQ)}  was  discovered  in 
  October  1994. 
 
  [Internal  implementation,  "Microprocessor  Report"  newsletter, 
  1993-03-29,  volume  7,  number  4]. 
 
  [Pentium  based  computers,  PC  Magazine,  1994-01-25]. 
 
  (1997-11-21)