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what x86 are we on right now?

M

Maverick

Diamond Member
we had the 86, the 186 (very limited), the 286, 386, 486.
the 586 was the Pentium classic
the 686 was the Pentium Pro/II
I think the Pentium III was a Pentium II with SSE.
So is the Pentium 4 the 786?

Where do AMD processors fit into this scheme?

 
The 186 was not a 'cpu' per se... It was an single chip 'system' much like an i960 that had an internal processor, dma, mem cntl etc. Your list left off the 386SX otherwise known as the p9.
 
(First Generation)
8088
8086 (16-bit version of the 8088)

(AMD was contracted by Intel to produce 8086 thru 80386 CPUs to help Intel meet demand)

(Second Generation)
80186
80286 (16-bit with better memory addressing and protected mode)

(Third Generation)
80386 (Jump to 32-bit processing)

AMD - 80386 CPU
(IIRC AMD was making both clone (Intel-brand) and competing (higher-clocked)
versions of the 80386 as/after their partnership with Intel was dissolved)

(Fourth Generation)
80486 (Dual 80386 Core - built in FPU)

The introduction (by AMD?) of clock multiplied CPUs with the 80486DX2

(Fifth Generation)
Pentium Class CPUs (80586)

Since Intel found they could not trademark a set of numbers, they switched to a brand
name to describe later generations of CPUs

AMD - K5
(Supposed to be a fifth generation design, performed only slightly better than
previous 486 models. Was not considered %100 code compatible with Intel)

(Sixth Generation)
Pentium Pro/II/III

(Pentium Pro was somewhat a crossover from fifth to sixth Generations)

AMD - K6
(Produced from designs bought out from NexGen - first sign of AMD catching back up
to Intel. CPU Integer performance was comparable to the Pentium Pro, but FPU
and multimedia performance was lagging.

AMD - K6-II/K6-III
(Better design, and more internal cache than the Pentiums, better tested to
insure application compatiblity with Intel designs.

(Seventh Generation)
Pentium4


AMD - Athlon


(Seventh Generation) (Introduction of 64-bit computing)
Itanium


AMD - Hammer series (Sledgehammer, Clawhammer)




Some of the points above are debatable as to where they fit exactly, but that is
pretty much how the Intel vs AMD releases stack up against each other.
Each generation is based on a shift in core design, or a clear evolutionary step
in releasing a new processor family.
 
There's 80188 as well.

80486 doesn't have a *duel* 386 core. but it did have a build in FPU,
elimnate the need for a seperate math coprocessor since the first gen days. and it's the first one have the L1 cache if my memory serves me.

and of course, there's a ton of other producer doing all the clone not so successfully, NEC, Cyrix, IBM, Wincihp, Rise....

 
"(Seventh Generation)
Pentium4
AMD - Athlon


(Seventh Generation) (Introduction of 64-bit computing)
Itanium
AMD - Hammer series (Sledgehammer, Clawhammer) "

Hmmm I know there have been lots of article and discussions on this (I'll try to dig some up and link them later). But I don't think there have been significant architectural changes to the P4/Athlon (over the P3) to make them a generation unto themselves. P3/P4/Athlon are more like Gen 6.5 while the 64bit procs represent solid Gen 7 with significant architectural changes or the P3/4/Athlon.

Thorin
 
Yep, I remember taking apart an old computer about 5 years ago to explain to my little brother what all those purty boards inside were...and I was pretty surprised to see an AMD logo on the processor (which was an 8086).

Speaking of which x86 we are on right now...I have a question for Intel. Where the hell is Merced? I seem to remember articles in Time magazine and such in 1999 that said it would be stupid to buy a new computer because of the 64 bit revolution that was just around the corner....
 
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