What Came After the 486?
5 points by jnord a day ago | 3 comments
  • stevefan1999 9 hours ago |
    Ah the pentium, aka 5-ium due to the penta- prefix. It is actually a nod from 4 to 5, but Intel wanted some cool name, and they decided penta + premium would sound cool, hence pentium.

    But still, internally we call it i586, because that's the way it is. so is Pentium MMX which I reckon is called i686.

    • gabrielsroka 3 hours ago |
      Trademarks

      > The name invoked the number five, but was completely trademarkable, unlike the number 586.

    • hulitu an hour ago |
      > but Intel wanted some cool name, and they decided penta + premium would sound cool, hence pentium

      some say that they tried to add 486 with 100 and the result had some numbers after the comma, that's why they named it pentium (yes, i know about the FDIV bug)