A couple of years ago I already offered Habr a series of posts composed of scans of my old magazines; I would like to continue it with a selection of notes on the upcoming release of Pentium - the first processor in history that had not its own number, but its own name. A recent topic about his twentieth birthday began with a story: “It was based on P5 architecture (the word“ Pentium ”is derived from the Greek“ penta ”- five) ...” - but it doesn’t touch on the question: why did you have to invent a sophisticated trade name?

A year before the release of the new processor, no one had yet expected that it would get out of the familiar x86 number series:

ComputerPress 3'92 - A. Borzenko

The i80486 microprocessor integrated circuit was announced by Intel in 1989 at Comdex in Chicago. And although, obviously, we did not have long to wait for the appearance of the new 586th microprocessor, today one of the most powerful universal microprocessors is i80486. The company Intel said that by now existing in the CIS distributors sold four times more chips than previously expected. The company will increase the number of its agents in the CIS and invest about $ 2 million in their training and education this year. Now there are three people working in the Moscow office of the company, soon there will be about 10.




Intel distributors are: MP Kvazar in Kiev, SP Dialog (Moscow), Center Techno (Moscow), SP KAT (Moscow), MP Kom-Plus (Zelenograd) and MP Nevis in St. Petersburg. Five more distributors will appear in the near future. Most of them sell Intel chips only for currency.

After conducting several marketing seminars for her Soviet partners, the company found that retired officers of the Soviet Army are best trained in marketing.

This year, the company will translate into Russian and publish a sufficient number of reference publications about its products.
Around the world, last year the firm made $ 7.7 billion in profit.
(Newsbytes News Network, January 30, 1992)

ComputerPress 9'92

Intel is thinking about whether or not to name the new processor, which should be released this year, in a different way. Not 80586

Intel’s people stated the complete absurdity of the rumors that 586 (the company name P5) was supposed to be shown on PC Expo, but something went wrong. Although the company has not yet chosen a name for the new product, it is already known that it will have approximately 3 million transistors on a chip and provide a performance of about 100 MIPS.
At the Seybold Digital World conference, Intel's president publicly corrected anyone who called the new unreleased product “586th.” Intel spokeswoman Nancy Pressel said they are very concerned about the new trend in coming up with names from numbers that are not protected by copyright and trademark law. Cyrix released its “486“ processor, which in terms of software and foot layout is identical to Intel's 386 processor. “This brings confusion to the orderly ranks of our customers,” Pressel said. She also denied rumors that the processor lights up or melts directly on the board. It is only known for certain that the development of such microcircuits does not occur without problems, that the P5 will be released this year and that his name is still unknown ...
(Newsbytes News Network, June 26, 1992)

ComputerPress 12'92 - K. Chashchin

4 is better than 3, but 5?

In a press release from Intel, it was announced that fifth-generation microprocessors that continue the x86 line will be called Pentium. This name is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Thus, in Intel Inside systems, the microprocessor 586 will not appear. The former (internal) name of the new microprocessor is P5. Pentium-based systems will be fully compatible with 100 million personal computers using the i8088, i286, i386, i486 microprocessors. The new microcircuit is made using BiCMOS 0.8-micron technology and contains more than 3.1 million transistors. Superscalar architecture achieves 100 MIPS performance. Pentium-based computers will be presented in the first quarter of 1993, simultaneously with the presentation of the microprocessor itself.
(ComputerPress, October 19, 1992)

Right after the preliminary announcement by the US Department of Commerce that Korean chip manufacturers are dumping (selling below cost) in the US, prices for some microprocessors and memory ICs jumped sharply.
Samsung, the largest of the manufacturers, which faces an increase in import duties up to 90% of the price of the product, expressed surprise and hope that these measures will not be taken until March 1993.
Although no tariffs have yet been introduced, the ministry “asked” Korean firms to pay a deposit corresponding to the expected debt at possible dumping rates.
Suppliers began to actively raise the price of chips. Some computer vendors told our agency that prices were flying up at an amazing pace, and sellers did not guarantee price stability for more than 1-2 days. (Panic is just like in Russia since the ruble depreciated, is it?)

Prices for Intel 486DX have risen in recent days by 80-100 dollars. How they will be affected by the release of the Pentium processor (previously called P5 or 586) is not known.

A number of American IP manufacturers seized the moment and are raising prices for similar products manufactured in the United States. Dumping, which is quite often blamed on a variety of Asian manufacturers, consists in selling their products at high prices in local, competitive markets, and using the extra profit to finance products sold in other countries. Similar allegations have also been made against Japanese chip companies.
(Newsbytes News Network, October 27, 1992)

While Intel announces that the 586 processor will be called the Pentium, and will be available soon enough, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Japan announced that it will release an exact copy of the 486 processor before the end of 1992, along with another faster version of the 386th crystal.
The 386 processor from AMD crushed 50 percent of the market, according to the statements of this company, and by the end of the year more than 12 million copies will be sold. Currently, AMD processors are used by companies such as Seiko-Epson, Fujitsu, Funai, NEC, Matsushita Electric.
AMD is also preparing for the release of a Pentium-compatible processor. The company claims that its wide sale will begin about a year after the appearance of the Intel processor. Intel does not like AMD and since 1990 has been constantly suing copyright infringement on certain parts of the processor topology and microcode. No one has been injured by court decisions yet.
(Newsbytes News Network, October 29, 1992)

ComputerPress 1'95 - V. Arkovenko

Arguments for Pentium

A new generation of Pentium-based computers will have to inherit some compatibility issues from their predecessors. However, it is hoped that many of them will disappear with the departure of obsolete products from the market and the end of the boom associated with a sharp drop in prices for the 486th processors. After all, the penetration of “raw” products is exactly what caused the boom in the compatibility problem. The fact that everything is possible during the boom may well be evidenced by the somewhat curious situation that currently exists on the processor market. Recently, the “gray” part of the market, which includes products dropped out at a certain stage from the traditional official distribution channels of manufacturers (this is a very noticeable share not only in Russia but throughout the world), literally awash with the so-called “frayed” 486DX2-66 processors. These are processors that were tested during manufacture as 486DX2-50, after which they were marked accordingly.On the way to the consumer, part of these processors falls to specific companies that test them for performance at a frequency of 66 MHz, then erase the old markings and mark them as 486DX2-66. It is almost impossible to distinguish such processors from the original ones. The fact that these products function perfectly normally is due, firstly, to a good margin in terms of parameters due to advanced manufacturing technology and, secondly, to the use of cooling fans to facilitate thermal conditions. “Grind” not only the clock frequency, but also the name of the manufacturer. Too many processors that Intel is written on are actually AMD processors (the benefit is that they hardly differ). I even had to deal with Intel 486DX-33 processors, which actually turned out to be Cyrix processors, which was easy to verify when installing them on the system board. When the system started up, characteristic information about the processor appeared, and with the help of testing programs Cyrix is ​​easy to determine. The reaction of Intel to such improper handling of its products was not heard. Perhaps the confusion with 486 processors is perceived by her as an additional argument in favor of Pentium.