Interestingly both Intel and AMD pulled the same trick at about the same time with regard to CISC vs. RISC. The Pentium Pro was also a RISC core that used micro

Interestingly both Intel and AMD pulled the same trick at about the same time with regard to CISC vs. RISC. The Pentium Pro was also a RISC core that used micro-op translation to present an x86 exterior, and it was introduced about half a year prior to the K5, though it didn't hit the consumer market for a while. Also, as you point out, Intel has been good at cross-pollinating between different development lines and teams. The Core architecture was a ground up redesign but it was heavily influenced by the work on the Pentium M design done by the Israeli division. And previously there was a lot of influence on the Pentium-III design from the work done with the low-budget Celeron line.