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Abstract
Human requirements are unlimited. Human beings want to achieve those unlimited
requirements in a limited time. As a consequence, they want to do all works as fast as
possible with highest degree of reliability. This in turn requires some sort of automation
(i.e. work with less human intervention). Computer is the major thing needed for this
automation process. The computer had played a major role for revolution of civilization.
We find the use of computers in all aspects of our day-to-day life. Various significant
applications of computer being ATM, Laptop, Palmtop, World Wide Web, e-mail, e-
commerce, and so on. The real entity that does all the work in the computer is the
microprocessor. The computers have undergone generations after generations with the
growth various electronic devices and software as well. There are various different
computers and microprocessor developed by different manufacturers. Intel is one of the
leading manufacturers. This work gives overall study of various microprocessors
developed by Intel. More detailed study of Pentium processor is done. Various hardware
and software aspects of the Pentium processor are studied in detail.

Key Word
Abacus, ENIAC, vacuum tubes, transistors, MHz/GHz, clone, embedded processors,
coprocessor, Superscalar, CISC, RISC, cache, MMX, 2nd-level (L2) cache, SISD, SIMD,
processor serial ID (chip ID), VLIW, EPIC, superscalar factor, pipeline depth, micro-ops,
branch prediction, instruction set

1. Introduction
The computing history starts well back from 3000 BC with the invention of abacus in
Babylonia and consequently with the use of algorithms to solve numerical problems in
1800 BC. With the rapid development of civilization and consequent increase in the
demand for faster and correct calculations human beings have tried to develop various
computing machines that can meet their requirements. The different forms computing
machines developed are slide rules, mechanical calculators, analytical machines and so
on. In 1890, electromechanical calculator was used in US census. In 1940 Complex
Numerical Calculator (the first Digital Computer) was demonstrated in Bell Labs. The
first general purpose computer called “Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer”
(ENIAC) was made in 1946 and (unfortunately) used extensively in World War II. With
the invention of vacuum tubes in 1951 there was few rapid development in computer
designs. The modern computer age really started with invention of transistors in 1959 in
the Bell Lab. After that the computers have undergone rapid changes in speed, size and
other features what even might have never been imagined by the great pioneers of the
computers. The computers size has changed from the dimensions of square feet as big as
a bedroom to the size of palm. The present age is of the age of microcomputers leaving
behind the mainframes and the minicomputers, etc.
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The five components of a computer are :

• input,
• output
• memory
• datapath and
• control.
The processor is the combination of last two i.e. datapath and control. People call this
processor as the CPU stands for “Central Processing Unit”. The “microprocessor” means
the CPU on a single chip. Of course, with the development of more modern designs this
terminology has become more or less fuzzy.

The microprocessor is the most active part of the computer. This consists of datapath and
control. The datapath performs the arithmetic operations and the control tells the
datapath, memory, and I/O devices what to do according to the instructions of the
program. The hardware is made to perform the desired task with the help of software.
Both hardware and software consists of different layers or abstractions. That helps the
hardware as well as software designers to cope with the complexity of the computer
systems. The key interface between level of abstraction is the instruction set architecture,
(or architecture), of a computer. The instruction set architecture includes anything
programmers need to know to make the binary machine language work correctly. Thus
computer architecture can be defined as the attributes of a computer as visible to the
programmer or those attributes that affect the execution of the program.

The first microprocessor was built in 1971 known as Intel 4004. This had only 2300
transistors. The first commercially available microprocessor is Intel 8086 in 1979.
Microprocessor has undergone rapid changes now we are going to have computers with 1
GHz microprocessors having millions of transistors packed in it, thanks to VLSI
technology. The speed of the microprocessors is governed by the well-known Moore’s
Law, which states that the processor speed doubles every 18 months.

There are various microprocessor giants who have played important roles for this fastest
growth of the compute industry, to name a few Motorola, Intel, and so on. The Intel Inc.
is considered as the most successful commercially available microprocessor company.

In this work, extensive survey of Intel Pentium is done. Pentium is the most popular
processor family developed by Intel. The work consists of various sections. One section
is fully dedicated to the history of the microprocessors developed by Intel. The next
section deals with hardware related issues of the Pentium processors. Then the work talks
about the instruction set architecture of the Pentium processors. A special section is
dedicated to the Pentium III processors, the fastest commercially available
microprocessor till date.
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2. Various Intel Processors

Intel invented the first microprocessor in the 1971, the Intel 4004, It had only 2300
transistors. Thus starting the microcomputer revolution. It was a 4-bit microprocessor.
The 8021, 8022, 8041, 8048 all were Intel’s 8-bit microcomputer chips. These had
around 8-10 registers each. Then Intel developed 8080A and 8085A 8-bit
microprocessors.

In the year 1979 Intel developed 8086/8088 16-bit microprocessors (8088 had 8-bit data
bus). Both had 20-bit address line, had speeds ranging from 4-16 MHz. NEC cloned
these to V20-V30 designs.

The revolution of Intel continued with the introduction of 80186 and 80188.
Unfortunately, this chip didn't catch on with many hardware manufacturers;. however,
this chip has enjoyed a tremendous success in the world of embedded processors. The
speed of the chips was in the range 6-40 MHz.

Intel introduced the 80286 microprocessor in 1982. This had 24 address lines, thus16MB
of addressibility. The speeds ranged from 6-25 MHz.

In 1985, Intel introduced the 80386 (renamed to 80386 DX). It was a 32-bit
microprocessor with 4GB addressibility. Intel introduced 80386 SX shortly after 80386.
This had 16-bit data bus & 24-bit address bus. Intel introduced the concept of a cache.
Then came 80386SL microprocessor integrated with core logic, chipset functionality, and
power saving features. The speed of all these microprocessors ranged from 16-40 MHz.

The last Intel microprocessor with x86 nomenclature was the 80486. This was also a 32-
bit microprocessor with clock speed of 50-75 MHz. This is the first chip to contain one
million of transistors. The Intel marketed this microprocessor in various forms. The
80486 DX was the cost-reduced version of 80486, the 80486 SX had both data and
address bus compatibility with its DX counterpart, the “math coprocessor” of this being
the 80487 SX. The 80486SL was the low power version one. Then the 80486 DX2 and
DX4 were introduced which had clock speed of 2-3 times than the original 80486.

The introduction of Pentium in 1993 brought the end of its x86 nomenclature. This chip
contains around 3 million transistors in it. The speeds varied from 90-133 MHz , of
course the original product ran at 60-66 MHz. The Pentium was a Superscalar processor.
The Pentium processor still has CISC architecture, but the high performance is achieved
by using many if the organizational features of RISC architecture.

Then came the Pentium Pro processor in 1995. It had speeds in the range 100-200 MHz.
It had a large 2nd-level (L2) cache to make the processor faster, but dynamic branch
prediction was implemented here as in the case of original Pentium. The 2nd level cache
increased the cost of the machine to a greater extent.
The Pentium II is an extension of Pentium Pro with MMX (multimedia Extension) for
modern multimedia applications. The package of Pentium II (called slot1) is different
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from Pentium Pro. The speed with a full speed 2nd level cache is claimed to be around
400 MHz. It can address up to 64 GB of main memory, but has a cache limitations
preventing memory use above 512 MB.

Then Intel introduced the Celeron. This is a Pentium II MMX but without the 2nd level
cache. The aim of Intel was to make available cheaper processors, at the cost of reduced
speed.

The Xeon is a Pentium II processor with a ½ speed 2nd level cache. Xeon is not slot
compatible with Pentium II, instead uses a slot named Slot-2. Price of Xeon is higher
than Celeron or Pentium II.

The fastest Intel processor available till date is Pentium III processor. This is available up
to speed of 1.0GHz. This is manufactured with Intel’s new 0.18-micron technology,
resulting better performance. This has got two more new features. First of all this is a
SIMD (Single Instruction and Multiple Data) machine unlike its predecessors which were
SISD (Single Instruction Single Data) machines. The other significant feature in Pentium
III is that each processor has unique processor serial ID (or chip ID) to enhance
manageability and asset tracking.

Merced is going to be the future generation processor of Intel with speed ranging from
600-1000 MHz. It is not going to have CISC architecture rather it will have RISC
architecture. It will have all features VLIW (Very Long Instruction Formats) design
termed as EPIC (Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing).

Table 1. Summary of different Intel processors

SL µ P Name Bus Bits MHz Special Features
1 4004 4 - 2300 transistors, 1st µ P
2 802x, 804x 8 - µ Computers, 8-10 registers
3 8080A/8085A 8 - -
4 8086/8088 16 4-16 Cloning started
5 80186 and 80188 - 6-40 Fault tolerance, DMA controller
6 80286 24 6-25 Protected mode
7 80386 32 16-40 Cache introduced
8 80486 32 50-75 1 million transistors, math processor
9 Pentium 32 90-133 3 million transistors, superscalar
10 Pentium Pro 32 100-200 L2 cache
11 Pentium II 32 400 MMX, Slot-1
12 Celeron 32 - No L2 cache, cheaper
13 Xeon 32 - ½ speed L2 cache, Slot-2
14 Pentium III 32 1000 SIMD, chip ID, 0.18 µ tech
15 Merced - 1000 VLIW, RISC