History of the x86 Processor (Page 3/10) Posted: February 26, 2001
Written by: Dustin "TimmyC" Jones Intel's 486 (cont.) The later released DX2 and DX4 versions of the 486 doubled and tripled the bus speed. These varied in speed as the board speed varied. These were indeed nice processors and power houses in their own right. The 486DX4 maxed out at 100 MHz.

Pentium, MMX, and Pro In 1993, Intel released the processor which would slingshot the MHz race, the Pentium. Working on a 64-bit transfer bus, which allowed for higher clocks, the original models came in 60 and 66MHz speeds. Intel soon released a second generation Pentium - with a new core - which ranged from 75 to 200MHz. The third and final generation of Pentium was released with the then impressive MMX technology at speeds of 166 to 233MHz.


The Pentium was a huge step toward the future.

1995: Shortly after the release of the Pentium, Intel released the Pentium Pro. This was essentially made for servers and NT workstations, as it did 32-bit calculations and multitasking a lot faster than the original Pentium could, but was actually slower in some cases with some 16-bit applications (i.e. Windows 95 -- well, not entirely 16-bit, but most consider it a 16-bit OS). Next Page