4 ms·

Yeah, it's why it's Pentium has the 'pent' in it, being the '5'86.. IIRC the trademark office told them they couldn't just trademark a number so they did the n

Yeah, it's why it's Pentium has the 'pent' in it, being the '5'86.. IIRC the trademark office told them they couldn't just trademark a number so they did the next best thing.

_0ffh 5y ago
Yep, at the time we were jokingly speculating if the next generation would be called Hexium. =)
- formerly_proven 5y ago
  I'm still disappointed that AM4 isn't PGA1337 and that they never released an AMD Furion.
- anyfoo 5y ago
  I was relatively young at that time, and actually a bit disappointed that it was called "Pentium Pro" instead.
lostgame 5y ago
That’s fascinating to know! I’d personally had a 386 and 486 before I finally got a Pentium, and I never understood the significance of the nomenclature. That’s super neat!
- anyfoo 5y ago
  They were also often prefixed with "80" until the 486, before the first of them, because they all came from the 8086, which was the first of the successor line of the 8080 CPU (or rather its 8 bit bus sibling 8088 was). After that came the 80186, which was not used in IBM compatible PCs (but in non-compatible ones) because it was more of a microcontroller and came with integrated but incompatible peripherals (like an interrupt controller). The CPU itself was still compatible, though. So were 80286, 80386, 80486 and everything after that. They all added stuff obviously, often massively, but they still all can run 8086 software. Though I've lost track of what's happening with Intel CPU as of recently, I just have some dim and unreliable recollection that real mode might finally have been removed altogether, not sure.
  - anyfoo 5y ago
    > until the 486, before the first of them Should read "until the 486, before the Pentium".
FartyMcFarter 5y ago
Wasn't the Pentium Pro also known as i686? I don't think there was ever an Intel 786 though.
- monocasa 5y ago
  It was. You can see that in gcc target triples.
- userbinator 5y ago
  If you go by the CPUID family identifier, then essentially everything from the Pentium Pro to the latest x-Lake are all in the P6/686 family. The only exceptions are Netburst (P4) with a family of 15(!), the GPU-ish Knight's Ferry/Corner in family 11, and Quark with its Pentium-level instruction set still in family 5. https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cpuid https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cpuid
the_snooze 5y ago
I prefer the joke explanation. Each new processor line got its name by doing the calculation of incrementing the previous one by 100: 286 --> 386 --> 486 --> 585
- InvaderFizz 5y ago
  For those that weren't around for the release of the original Pentium CPUs, this off-by-one error is a callback to the bug[0] in the FPU. Hilarious. 0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_FDIV_bug https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_FDIV_bug
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

Yeah, it's why it's Pentium has the 'pent' in it, being the '5'86.. IIRC the trademark office told them they couldn't just trademark a number so they did the next best thing.

_0ffh 5y ago

Yep, at the time we were jokingly speculating if the next generation would be called Hexium. =)

formerly_proven 5y ago
I'm still disappointed that AM4 isn't PGA1337 and that they never released an AMD Furion.
anyfoo 5y ago
I was relatively young at that time, and actually a bit disappointed that it was called "Pentium Pro" instead.

lostgame 5y ago

That’s fascinating to know! I’d personally had a 386 and 486 before I finally got a Pentium, and I never understood the significance of the nomenclature. That’s super neat!

anyfoo 5y ago
They were also often prefixed with "80" until the 486, before the first of them, because they all came from the 8086, which was the first of the successor line of the 8080 CPU (or rather its 8 bit bus sibling 8088 was). After that came the 80186, which was not used in IBM compatible PCs (but in non-compatible ones) because it was more of a microcontroller and came with integrated but incompatible peripherals (like an interrupt controller). The CPU itself was still compatible, though. So were 80286, 80386, 80486 and everything after that. They all added stuff obviously, often massively, but they still all can run 8086 software. Though I've lost track of what's happening with Intel CPU as of recently, I just have some dim and unreliable recollection that real mode might finally have been removed altogether, not sure.
- anyfoo 5y ago
  > until the 486, before the first of them Should read "until the 486, before the Pentium".

FartyMcFarter 5y ago

Wasn't the Pentium Pro also known as i686? I don't think there was ever an Intel 786 though.

monocasa 5y ago
It was. You can see that in gcc target triples.
userbinator 5y ago
If you go by the CPUID family identifier, then essentially everything from the Pentium Pro to the latest x-Lake are all in the P6/686 family. The only exceptions are Netburst (P4) with a family of 15(!), the GPU-ish Knight's Ferry/Corner in family 11, and Quark with its Pentium-level instruction set still in family 5. https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cpuid https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/cpuid

the_snooze 5y ago

I prefer the joke explanation. Each new processor line got its name by doing the calculation of incrementing the previous one by 100: 286 --> 386 --> 486 --> 585

InvaderFizz 5y ago
For those that weren't around for the release of the original Pentium CPUs, this off-by-one error is a callback to the bug[0] in the FPU. Hilarious. 0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_FDIV_bug https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_FDIV_bug
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]