List of Intel CPU microarchitectures
Encyclopedia
The following is a partial list of Intel CPU microarchitecture
s. The list is not complete.
8086
: First x86 processor; initially a temporary substitute for the iAPX 432 to compete with Motorola
, Zilog
, and National Semiconductor
and to top the successful Z80.
186
: Included a DMA
controller, interrupt controller, timers, and chip select
logic.
286
: First x86 processor with protected mode
.
i386
: First 32-bit
x86 processor.
i486
: Intel's second-generation of 32-bit
x86 processors, included built in floating point unit and pipelining.
P5
: Original Pentium microprocessors.
P6
: Used in Pentium Pro
, Pentium II
, Pentium II Xeon, Pentium III
, and Pentium III Xeon microprocessors.
NetBurst: Used in Pentium 4
, Pentium D
, and some Xeon
microprocessors. Commonly referred to as P7 although its internal name was P68 (P7 was used for Itanium
). Later revisions were the first to feature Intel's x86-64
architecture.
Core: Rearchitected P6-based microarchitecture used in Core 2
and Xeon
microprocessors, built on a 65 nm process.
Nehalem: Released 2008-11-17, built on a 45 nm process and used in the Core i7, Core i5, Core i3 microprocessors.
Sandy Bridge
: Released 2011-01-09, built on a 32 nm process and used in the Core i7, Core i5, Core i3 second generation microprocessors. Formerly called Gesher but renamed in 2007.
Haswell: Future Intel microarchitecture, expected around 2013, based on a 22 nm process.
Skylake
: Future Intel microarchitecture, based on a 14 nm process.
Larrabee: Multi-core in-order x86-64
updated version of P5 microarchitecture, with wide SIMD
vector units and texture sampling hardware for use in graphics.
Bonnell: Low-power, in-order microarchitecture for use in Atom
processors.
: Original Itanium microarchitecture. Used only in the first Itanium
microprocessors.
McKinley microarchitecture
: Enhanced microarchitecture used in the first two generations of the Itanium 2 microprocessor.
Tukwila microarchitecture
: Enhanced microarchitecture used in the Itanium 9300 series of processors. Added quad core, SMT, an integrated memory controller, QuickPath Interconnect, and other improvements.
Poulson microarchitecture: Future Itanium processor said to feature a new microarchitecture.
Microarchitecture
In computer engineering, microarchitecture , also called computer organization, is the way a given instruction set architecture is implemented on a processor. A given ISA may be implemented with different microarchitectures. Implementations might vary due to different goals of a given design or...
s. The list is not complete.
x86 microarchitectures
| Microarchitecture | Pipeline stages |
|---|---|
| P5 P5 (microarchitecture) The original Pentium microprocessor was introduced on March 22, 1993. Its microarchitecture, deemed P5, was Intel's fifth-generation and first superscalar x86 microarchitecture. As a direct extension of the 80486 architecture, it included dual integer pipelines, a faster FPU, wider data bus,... (Pentium) |
5 |
| P6 P6 (microarchitecture) The P6 microarchitecture is the sixth generation Intel x86 microarchitecture, implemented by the Pentium Pro microprocessor that was introduced in November 1995. It is sometimes referred to as i686. It was succeeded by the NetBurst microarchitecture in 2000, but eventually revived in the Pentium M... (Pentium Pro) |
14 |
| P6 (Pentium 3) | 10 |
| NetBurst (Willamette) | 20 |
| NetBurst (Northwood) | 20 |
| NetBurst (Prescott) | 31 |
| NetBurst (Cedar Mill) | 31 |
| Core | 14 |
| Bonnell | 16 |
8086
Intel 8086
The 8086 is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and mid-1978, when it was released. The 8086 gave rise to the x86 architecture of Intel's future processors...
: First x86 processor; initially a temporary substitute for the iAPX 432 to compete with Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...
, Zilog
Zilog
Zilog, Inc., previously known as ZiLOG , is a manufacturer of 8-bit and 24-bit microcontrollers, and is most famous for its Intel 8080-compatible Z80 series.-History:...
, and National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor
National Semiconductor was an American semiconductor manufacturer, that specialized in analog devices and subsystems,formerly headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. The products of National Semiconductor included power management circuits, display drivers, audio and operational amplifiers,...
and to top the successful Z80.
186
Intel 80186
The 80188 is a version with an 8-bit external data bus, instead of 16-bit. This makes it less expensive to connect to peripherals. The 80188 is otherwise very similar to the 80186. It has a throughput of 1 million instructions per second....
: Included a DMA
Direct memory access
Direct memory access is a feature of modern computers that allows certain hardware subsystems within the computer to access system memory independently of the central processing unit ....
controller, interrupt controller, timers, and chip select
Chip select
Chip select or slave select is the name of a control line in digital electronics used to select one chip out of several connected to the same computer bus usually utilizing the three-state logic....
logic.
286
Intel 80286
The Intel 80286 , introduced on 1 February 1982, was a 16-bit x86 microprocessor with 134,000 transistors. Like its contemporary simpler cousin, the 80186, it could correctly execute most software written for the earlier Intel 8086 and 8088...
: First x86 processor with protected mode
Protected mode
In computing, protected mode, also called protected virtual address mode, is an operational mode of x86-compatible central processing units...
.
i386
Intel 80386
The Intel 80386, also known as the i386, or just 386, was a 32-bit microprocessor introduced by Intel in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors and were used as the central processing unit of many workstations and high-end personal computers of the time...
: First 32-bit
32-bit
The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....
x86 processor.
i486
Intel 80486
The Intel 80486 microprocessor was a higher performance follow up on the Intel 80386. Introduced in 1989, it was the first tightly pipelined x86 design as well as the first x86 chip to use more than a million transistors, due to a large on-chip cache and an integrated floating point unit...
: Intel's second-generation of 32-bit
32-bit
The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....
x86 processors, included built in floating point unit and pipelining.
P5
P5 (microarchitecture)
The original Pentium microprocessor was introduced on March 22, 1993. Its microarchitecture, deemed P5, was Intel's fifth-generation and first superscalar x86 microarchitecture. As a direct extension of the 80486 architecture, it included dual integer pipelines, a faster FPU, wider data bus,...
: Original Pentium microprocessors.
P6
P6 (microarchitecture)
The P6 microarchitecture is the sixth generation Intel x86 microarchitecture, implemented by the Pentium Pro microprocessor that was introduced in November 1995. It is sometimes referred to as i686. It was succeeded by the NetBurst microarchitecture in 2000, but eventually revived in the Pentium M...
: Used in Pentium Pro
Pentium Pro
The Pentium Pro is a sixth-generation x86 microprocessor developed and manufactured by Intel introduced in November 1, 1995 . It introduced the P6 microarchitecture and was originally intended to replace the original Pentium in a full range of applications...
, Pentium II
Pentium II
The Pentium II brand refers to Intel's sixth-generation microarchitecture and x86-compatible microprocessors introduced on May 7, 1997. Containing 7.5 million transistors, the Pentium II featured an improved version of the first P6-generation core of the Pentium Pro, which contained 5.5 million...
, Pentium II Xeon, Pentium III
Pentium III
The Pentium III brand refers to Intel's 32-bit x86 desktop and mobile microprocessors based on the sixth-generation P6 microarchitecture introduced on February 26, 1999. The brand's initial processors were very similar to the earlier Pentium II-branded microprocessors...
, and Pentium III Xeon microprocessors.
-
- Pentium M: Updated version of Pentium III's P6 microarchitecture designed from the ground up for mobile computing.
- Enhanced Pentium M: Updated, dual core version of the Pentium M microarchitecture used in Core microprocessors.
NetBurst: Used in Pentium 4
Pentium 4
Pentium 4 was a line of single-core desktop and laptop central processing units , introduced by Intel on November 20, 2000 and shipped through August 8, 2008. They had a 7th-generation x86 microarchitecture, called NetBurst, which was the company's first all-new design since the introduction of the...
, Pentium D
Pentium D
The Pentium D brand refers to two series of desktop dual-core 64-bit x86-64 microprocessors with the NetBurst microarchitecture manufactured by Intel. Each CPU comprised two dies, each containing a single core, residing next to each other on a multi-chip module package. The brand's first processor,...
, and some Xeon
Xeon
The Xeon is a brand of multiprocessing- or multi-socket-capable x86 microprocessors from Intel Corporation targeted at the non-consumer server, workstation and embedded system markets.-Overview:...
microprocessors. Commonly referred to as P7 although its internal name was P68 (P7 was used for Itanium
Itanium
Itanium is a family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture . Intel markets the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance computing systems...
). Later revisions were the first to feature Intel's x86-64
X86-64
x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces than are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets. x86-64 also provides 64-bit general purpose registers and numerous other...
architecture.
Core: Rearchitected P6-based microarchitecture used in Core 2
Intel Core 2
Core 2 is a brand encompassing a range of Intel's consumer 64-bit x86-64 single-, dual-, and quad-core microprocessors based on the Core microarchitecture. The single- and dual-core models are single-die, whereas the quad-core models comprise two dies, each containing two cores, packaged in a...
and Xeon
Xeon
The Xeon is a brand of multiprocessing- or multi-socket-capable x86 microprocessors from Intel Corporation targeted at the non-consumer server, workstation and embedded system markets.-Overview:...
microprocessors, built on a 65 nm process.
-
- Penryn: 45 nm shrink of the Core microarchitecture with larger cache, faster FSB and clock speeds, and SSE4.1SSE4SSE4 is a CPU instruction set used in the Intel Core microarchitecture and AMD K10 . It was announced on 27 September 2006 at the Fall 2006 Intel Developer Forum, with vague details in a white paper; more precise details of 47 instructions became available at the Spring 2007 Intel Developer Forum...
instructions.
- Penryn: 45 nm shrink of the Core microarchitecture with larger cache, faster FSB and clock speeds, and SSE4.1
Nehalem: Released 2008-11-17, built on a 45 nm process and used in the Core i7, Core i5, Core i3 microprocessors.
-
- Westmere: 32 nm shrink of the Nehalem microarchitecture with several new features.
Sandy Bridge
Sandy Bridge (microarchitecture)
Sandy Bridge is the codename for a microarchitecture developed by Intel beginning in 2005 for central processing units in computers to replace the Nehalem microarchitecture...
: Released 2011-01-09, built on a 32 nm process and used in the Core i7, Core i5, Core i3 second generation microprocessors. Formerly called Gesher but renamed in 2007.
-
- Ivy Bridge: 22 nm shrink of the Sandy Bridge microarchitecture, expected around 2012.
Haswell: Future Intel microarchitecture, expected around 2013, based on a 22 nm process.
-
- Broadwell: 14 nm shrink of the Haswell microarchitecture, expected around 2014. Formerly called Rockwell.
Skylake
Skylake (microarchitecture)
Skylake is the codename for a processor microarchitecture to be developed by Intel as the successor to the Haswell architecture. Skylake will use a 14 nm process....
: Future Intel microarchitecture, based on a 14 nm process.
-
- Skymont: 10 nm shrink of the Skylake microarchitecture.
Larrabee: Multi-core in-order x86-64
X86-64
x86-64 is an extension of the x86 instruction set. It supports vastly larger virtual and physical address spaces than are possible on x86, thereby allowing programmers to conveniently work with much larger data sets. x86-64 also provides 64-bit general purpose registers and numerous other...
updated version of P5 microarchitecture, with wide SIMD
SIMD
Single instruction, multiple data , is a class of parallel computers in Flynn's taxonomy. It describes computers with multiple processing elements that perform the same operation on multiple data simultaneously...
vector units and texture sampling hardware for use in graphics.
Bonnell: Low-power, in-order microarchitecture for use in Atom
Intel Atom
Intel Atom is the brand name for a line of ultra-low-voltage x86 and x86-64 CPUs from Intel, designed in 45 nm CMOS and used mainly in netbooks, nettops, embedded application ranging from health care to advanced robotics and Mobile Internet devices...
processors.
Itanium microarchitectures
Merced microarchitectureItanium
Itanium is a family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture . Intel markets the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance computing systems...
: Original Itanium microarchitecture. Used only in the first Itanium
Itanium
Itanium is a family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture . Intel markets the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance computing systems...
microprocessors.
McKinley microarchitecture
Itanium
Itanium is a family of 64-bit Intel microprocessors that implement the Intel Itanium architecture . Intel markets the processors for enterprise servers and high-performance computing systems...
: Enhanced microarchitecture used in the first two generations of the Itanium 2 microprocessor.
-
- Montecito microarchitectureMontecito (processor)Montecito is the code-name of a major release of Intel's Itanium 2 Processor Family , which implements the Intel Itanium architecture on a dual-core processor. It was officially launched by Intel on July 18, 2006 as the "Dual-Core Intel Itanium 2 processor"...
: Enhanced McKinley microarchitecture used in the Itanium 2 9000- and 9100-series of processors. Added dual core, coarse multithreading, and other improvements.
- Montecito microarchitecture
Tukwila microarchitecture
Tukwila (processor)
Tukwila is the code-name for the generation of Intel's Itanium processor family following Itanium 2 and Montecito. It was released on 8 February 2010 as the Itanium 9300 Series. While its features have not been publicly disclosed in detail, it utilizes both multiple processor cores and SMT...
: Enhanced microarchitecture used in the Itanium 9300 series of processors. Added quad core, SMT, an integrated memory controller, QuickPath Interconnect, and other improvements.
Poulson microarchitecture: Future Itanium processor said to feature a new microarchitecture.
See also
- List of AMD CPU microarchitectures
- Marvell Technology Group XScale microarchitectureXScaleThe XScale, a microprocessor core, is Intel's and Marvell's implementation of the ARMv5 architecture, and consists of several distinct families: IXP, IXC, IOP, PXA and CE . Intel sold the PXA family to Marvell Technology Group in June 2006....
- Intel Tick-TockIntel Tick-Tock"Tick-Tock" is a model, of Jones Farm 5 and adopted by chip manufacturer Intel Corporation since 2007 to follow every microarchitectural change with shrinking of the process technology. Every "tick" is a shrinking of process technology of the previous microarchitecture and every "tock" is a new...