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First Intel Pentium Chip Came Out 33 Years Ago

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  First Intel Pentium Chip Came Out 33 Years Ago Lawrence D’Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> - 2026-03-22 23:12 +0000
    Re: First Intel Pentium Chip Came Out 33 Years Ago Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> - 2026-03-22 23:43 +0000
      Re: First Intel Pentium Chip Came Out 33 Years Ago Charlie Gibbs <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid> - 2026-03-23 03:21 +0000
        Re: First Intel Pentium Chip Came Out 33 Years Ago Bob Eager <news0009@eager.cx> - 2026-03-23 09:55 +0000

#234318 — First Intel Pentium Chip Came Out 33 Years Ago

<https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/intel-released-its-first-pentium-chip-on-this-day-33-years-ago-came-packing-3-1-million-transistors-fifth-gen-x86-chip-built-on-an-800nm-process>

One thing that article doesn’t mention was how enormous the chip
package was -- it was about the size of a VHS videocassette.

1993 was also the year the Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance first showed
off their PowerPC chips. Those initial 60- and 66-MHz Pentiums were
the butt of merciless jokes, not just over their inferior performance,
but how it looked even worse if you compared performance per watt of
power consumed.

About a year or two later, Intel switched to a new fab process, and
brought out the Pentium-90. That’s when the tables started to turn
against PowerPC.

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#234319

On 2026-03-22, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:

> <https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/intel-released-its-first-pentium-chip-on-this-day-33-years-ago-came-packing-3-1-million-transistors-fifth-gen-x86-chip-built-on-an-800nm-process>
>
> One thing that article doesn’t mention was how enormous the chip
> package was -- it was about the size of a VHS videocassette.

You mean the commercial packaging for on-shelf sale?

Because otherwise the processor itself is quite small, isn't it,
especially compared to Slot 1 assemblies?

> 1993 was also the year the Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance first showed
> off their PowerPC chips. Those initial 60- and 66-MHz Pentiums were
> the butt of merciless jokes, not just over their inferior performance,
> but how it looked even worse if you compared performance per watt of
> power consumed.

Don't forget its IEEE754 operation performance, especially where
division is concerned :-P

> About a year or two later, Intel switched to a new fab process, and
> brought out the Pentium-90. That’s when the tables started to turn
> against PowerPC.

-- 
Nuno Silva

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#234320

On 2026-03-22, Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> wrote:

> On 2026-03-22, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
>
>> 1993 was also the year the Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance first showed
>> off their PowerPC chips. Those initial 60- and 66-MHz Pentiums were
>> the butt of merciless jokes, not just over their inferior performance,
>> but how it looked even worse if you compared performance per watt of
>> power consumed.
>
> Don't forget its IEEE754 operation performance, especially where
> division is concerned :-P

"I am Pentium of Borg.  Division is futile.  You will be approximated."

-- 
/~\  Charlie Gibbs                  |  Growth for the sake of
\ /  <cgibbs@kltpzyxm.invalid>      |  growth is the ideology
 X   I'm really at ac.dekanfrus     |  of the cancer cell.
/ \  if you read it the right way.  |    -- Edward Abbey

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#234325

On Mon, 23 Mar 2026 03:21:47 +0000, Charlie Gibbs wrote:

> On 2026-03-22, Nuno Silva <nunojsilva@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> 
>> On 2026-03-22, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:
>>
>>> 1993 was also the year the Apple-IBM-Motorola alliance first showed
>>> off their PowerPC chips. Those initial 60- and 66-MHz Pentiums were
>>> the butt of merciless jokes, not just over their inferior performance,
>>> but how it looked even worse if you compared performance per watt of
>>> power consumed.
>>
>> Don't forget its IEEE754 operation performance, especially where
>> division is concerned :-P
> 
> "I am Pentium of Borg.  Division is futile.  You will be approximated."

Intel did in fact replace three chips for me.



-- 
Using UNIX since v6 (1975)...

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