Pentium III
The Pentium III processor is a series of CPUs produced by Intel Corporation, an American multinational technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The processor was part of Intel's P6 microarchitecture lineup, which also included the Pentium II and Pentium Pro.
Released in 1999, the Pentium III was a significant advancement in Intel's processor technology. It continued the tradition of the Pentium brand that began in 1993. The processor was designed to deliver improved performance for desktop and mobile computers, catering primarily to consumer markets.
Architecture and Features
The Pentium III leveraged the P6 microarchitecture, which was a refinement over the Pentium Pro. It featured several enhancements over its predecessors:
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MMX Technology: The Pentium III incorporated the MMX instruction set, which was initially introduced with the Pentium MMX.
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Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE): Intel introduced the SSE instruction set, providing better performance for multimedia applications.
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Katmai and Coppermine Cores: The processor was released in two major core versions, namely Katmai and Coppermine. These cores differed in terms of manufacturing technology and performance optimizations.
Comparison with Other Processors
The Pentium III was released in the same era as the AMD K6-III, a competing processor from Advanced Micro Devices. Both processors targeted the same consumer segments and were equipped with similar features to enhance multimedia performance.
Successors and Legacy
The Pentium III was eventually succeeded by the Pentium 4, which introduced a new microarchitecture aimed at achieving higher clock speeds. However, the legacy of the Pentium III can be seen in the Pentium M, which borrowed heavily from the Pentium III's design.