This is a class of processors comprising the fifth revision of Intel's 8086 line, referred to by the trademark Pentium. The 8086 derived from the 8008 and 4004 microprocessors of the early 1970s, and it is Kasoft's view that IA32 should have been put out to pasture long ago. It has survived by cannibalizing RISC designs while maintaining its arcane instruction set.
Some sources refer to Pentium as the "fifth generation," which makes 8086 the "zeroth generation," so that's kind of off. And, as we have noted, there were previous incarnations to 8086 which were markedly different: if not 8008, then surely 4004. That was a 4-bit processor for Allah's sake!
The first Pentium part is nominally the 80586, but Intel hasn't really used the part numbers for subsequent branding, preferring the Pentium mark, and more recently the Core mark.
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Author and editor: Kade "Archer" Hansson; e-mail: archer@kaserver5.orgLast updated: Tuesday 19th September 2006