Pentium

Intel, the largest computer chip manufacturer in the world, introduced the Pentium chip in 1993. Intel decided to call the new generation of chip the Pentium chip, rather than the 586. A change to the naming convention gave Intel a new name they could copyright. Now if another company produced the equivalent of a Pentium chip, they could not call it a Pentium chip. This resulted in companies like AMD naming their chips K5 and K6 instead of Pentium and Pentium II, adding another area of confusion for the average consumer.

The introduction of the Pentium chip quickly outdated the 486 because its speed provided a tremendous boost to processing power. Intel introduced the Pentium Pro in 1995 and followed up with the Pentium II processor two years later. Each of these chips was faster and better than the previous chip. Everything remained understandable and logical until Intel’s next step.

Celeron Confusion

In 1998, Intel produced a new Pentium chip called the Celeron chip, which added considerably to the chip confusion. The Celeron chip was introduced as a low-end chip.   The first Celerons on the market had no cache and were fairly slow. After an outcry from technology experts, shortly after their introduction in August 1998, Intel added cache to the Celeron chip, which improved its performance. The Celeron chips, however, did not disappear as newer chips were added. Instead, they remained, in various confusing configurations, right beside the faster, full-blown Pentium chips.

Pentium III

The Pentium III processor debuted in February 1999 boasting speeds of 450 MHz and 500 MHz. (I am writing this on an 800 MHz Pentium III, much more than any word-processing program will ever need.) The Pentium III has special capabilities that enhance 3-D images, audio, speech, and video. The Pentium III sped up and improved speech recognition, video, and 3-D graphics.

A Pentium III is a good cost-effective chip that will handle just about any current software program.

Pentium 4 - the Fastest (right now)

At speeds that currently range to 1.80 GHz, the Pentium 4 processor is equipped with a new micro-architecture, an advanced transfer cache, and streaming SIMD extensions 2. Pentium 4s have taken bus speeds up to 400 MHz, which greatly enhances the speed of the chip. This generation of processors is a good buy if you want to use speech recognition programs, audio or video editing, heavy-duty graphic or photo programs, or games. Like their predecessors, Pentium 4 chips will be available at a cost premium until the next generation of chips appears. For most of us, the Pentium 4 is not a necessity.

When using e-mail and word processing, you will probably see little difference between the Pentium III and the Pentium 4. The speed of the Pentium 4, however, will be discernable in 3D gaming, digital video, and, possibly even in digital audio processing.

Intel Competitors

So far, we have only talked about Intel chips. There are also AMD, Cyrix, Telematic, and several other chip manufacturers who have competing chips with different names. Of these, the Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) K6-III, Athlon, and Duron are the most popular. Several good manufacturers use these chips instead of Intel’s Pentium chips. In fact, the Athlon held the title as the fastest chip for a while last year. In my humble opinion, AMD chips are as good as Intel chips, but they are not necessarily equivalent.   Differences in cache, bus systems, and instruction sets result in performance differences based on the type of work that the computer chip is doing (i.e. number crunching vs. graphics, etc.).

Benchmarks

If you really want to do your homework and you have a lot of time, you can find comparisons and benchmarks for each of the chips I have mentioned here.   Look at Intel’s latest iComp Index for processor speed comparisons.  Ideas International has a full list of all Intel’s chips and their specs. If you are interested in comparing AMD chips, try the AMD Web site. Just remember that these are benchmarks done by the companies themselves.   Several independent companies, especially magazines like Byte, PC Magazine, and MacAddict, also compare processors, but be forewarned this gets into some complicated areas and comparisons.

Which One for You?

Now that you have tons of information about CPUs, it's time to decide which processor is best for you. Determine your computing needs before you purchase your new processor. E-mail, Internet, and other average applications do not necessarily need the most sophisticated processor on the market. On the other hand, processor speed and power are needed for graphics, voice recognition, and video processing.

If you expect to use your computer for e-mail, word processing, and the kid’s schoolwork, a Pentium Celeron chip or any of the newer AMD chips will be just fine. For other users interested in gaming and/or speech recognition or any intense work with pictures or graphics, go for a Pentium III or the AMD K6-III, Athlon, or Pentium 4 if you have a few extra bucks.

You should also try to plan ahead. Consider the possibility that although you may not want to play videos or games on your computer right now, you might want to do so in the future. Chips are not always upgradeable. The Pentium 4, for instance, uses a different chipset and a new architecture, so you cannot upgrade a Pentium III to a Pentium 4.

Faster, newer, and more powerful chips will always cost more than the older, less powerful chips. Everyone’s hope in purchasing a new computer is to have it last as long as possible. My advice is to buy the most powerful and fastest chip that you can afford; even if you don’t use that power now, you may need it in the future.