Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 3.24. 486 processor die. Photograph used by permission of Intel Corporation.
To learn more about the 486 processor family and the 486-based AMD 5x86, see Chapter 3 of
Upgrading and Repairing PCs,
19
th
Edition, available in its entirety on the disc packaged with this
book.
P5 (586) Processors
After the fourth-generation chips such as the 486, Intel and other chip manufacturers went back to the
drawing board to come up with new architectures and features that they would later incorporate into
what they called
fifth-generation chips
.
On October 19, 1992, Intel announced that the fifth generation of its compatible microprocessor line
(code-named P5) would be named the Pentium processor. The actual Pentium chip shipped on March
22, 1993. Systems that used these chips were only a few months behind.
Note
Pentium, like Celeron and Athlon, has become a brand name in recent years rather than
identifying a particular processor type. This section discusses the original Pentium processors
for Socket 5 and Socket 7.
