Pentium III
The Pentium III (marketed as Intel Pentium III Processor, informally PIII or P3) brand refers to Intel's 32-bit x86 desktop and mobile CPUs based on the sixth-generation P6 microarchitecture introduced on February 28, 1999. The brand's initial processors were very similar to the earlier Pentium II-branded processors. The most notable differences were the addition of the Streaming SIMD Extensions (SSE) instruction set (to accelerate floating point and parallel calculations), and the introduction of a controversial serial number embedded in the chip during manufacturing. The Pentium III is also a single-core processor.
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | February 28, 1999 |
| Discontinued | April 23, 2004 (for desktop units) May 18, 2007 (for mobile units) |
| Marketed by | Intel |
| Designed by | Intel |
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| Product code |
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| Performance | |
| Max. CPU clock rate | 400 MHz to 1.4 GHz |
| FSB speeds | 100 MT/s to 133 MT/s |
| Cache | |
| L1 cache | 32 KB (16 KB data + 16 KB instructions) |
| L2 cache | 128 KB - 512 KB |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Technology node | 250 nm to 130 nm |
| Microarchitecture | P6 |
| Instruction set | IA-32, MMX, SSE |
| Instructions | MMX, SSE |
| Physical specifications | |
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| Cores |
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| History | |
| Predecessor(s) | Pentium II |
| Successor(s) | Pentium 4 |
| Support status | |
| Unsupported | |
Even after the release of the Pentium 4 in late 2000, the Pentium III continued to be produced with new models introduced up until early 2003. They were then discontinued in April 2004 for desktop units and May 2007 for mobile units.