General information | |
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Launched | May 7, 1997 |
Discontinued | December 26, 2003[1] |
Marketed by | Intel |
Designed by | Intel |
Common manufacturer |
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CPUID code | Klamath: 80522 Deschutes and Tonga: 80523 Dixon: 80524 |
Performance | |
Max. CPU clock rate | 233 MHz to 450 MHz |
FSB speeds | 66 MT/s to 100 MT/s |
Cache | |
L1 cache | 32 KB (16 KB data + 16 KB instructions) |
L2 cache | 256–512 KB |
Architecture and classification | |
Technology node | 350 nm to 180 nm |
Microarchitecture | P6 |
Instruction set | IA-32 |
Extensions | |
Physical specifications | |
Transistors |
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Cores |
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Sockets |
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Products, models, variants | |
Core names |
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History | |
Predecessors | Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium MMX |
Successors | Pentium III (SSE successor), Celeron, Pentium 4 (SSE2 successor) |
Support status | |
Unsupported |
The Pentium II[2] brand refers to Intel's sixth-generation microarchitecture ("P6") and x86-compatible microprocessors introduced on May 7, 1997. Containing 7.5 million transistors (27.4 million in the case of the mobile Dixon with 256 KB on-die L2 cache), the Pentium II featured an improved version of the first P6-generation core of the Pentium Pro, which contained 5.5 million transistors. However, its L2 cache subsystem was a downgrade when compared to the Pentium Pro's.
In 1998, Intel stratified the Pentium II family by releasing the Pentium II-based Celeron line of processors for low-end computers and the Pentium II Xeon line for servers and workstations. The Celeron was characterized by a reduced or omitted (in some cases present but disabled) on-die full-speed L2 cache and a 66 MT/s FSB. The Xeon was characterized by a range of full-speed L2 cache (from 512 KB to 2048 KB), a 100 MT/s FSB, a different physical interface (Slot 2), and support for symmetric multiprocessing.
In February 1999, the Pentium II was replaced by the nearly identical Pentium III, which only added the then-new SSE instruction set. However, the older family would continue to be produced until June 2001 for desktop units,[3] September 2001 for mobile units,[4] and the end of 2003 for embedded devices.[1]