Pentium M
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Predecessor(s) | Pentium 4 M |
Successor(s) | Intel Core (Yonah) Stealey |
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Unsupported |
The Pentium M is a family of mobile 32-bit single-core x86 microprocessors (with the modified Intel P6 microarchitecture) introduced in March 2003 and forming a part of the Intel Carmel notebook platform under the then new Centrino brand.[2] The Pentium M processors had a maximum thermal design power (TDP) of 5–27 W depending on the model, and were intended for use in laptops (thus the "M" suffix standing for mobile). They evolved from the core of the last Pentium III–branded CPU by adding the front-side bus (FSB) interface of Pentium 4, an improved instruction decoding and issuing front end, improved branch prediction, SSE2 support, and a much larger cache.
The first Pentium M–branded
The Pentium M line was removed from the official price lists in July 2009, when the Pentium M-branded processors were succeeded by the
Overview
The Pentium M represented a new and radical departure for Intel, as it was not a low-power version of the desktop-oriented Pentium 4, but instead a heavily modified version of the Pentium III Tualatin design (itself based on the Pentium II core design, which in turn had been a heavily improved evolution of the Pentium Pro). It is optimized for power efficiency, a vital characteristic for extending notebook computer battery life. Running with very low average power consumption and much lower heat output than desktop processors, the Pentium M runs at a lower clock speed than the laptop version of the Pentium 4 (The Pentium 4-Mobile, or P4-M), but with similar performance - a 1.6 GHz Pentium M can typically attain or even surpass the performance of a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4-M.[4] The Pentium M 740 has been tested to perform up to approximately 7,400 MIPS and 3.9 GFLOPS (using SSE2).[5]
The Pentium M coupled the execution core of the Pentium III with a Pentium 4 compatible bus interface, an improved instruction decoding/issuing front end, improved branch prediction, SSE2 support, and a much larger cache. The usually power-hungry secondary cache uses an access method which only switches on the portion being accessed. The main intention behind the large cache was to keep a decent-sized portion of it still available to the processor even when most of the L2 cache was switched off, but its size led to a welcome improvement in performance.
Other power saving methods include dynamically variable clock frequency and core voltage, allowing the Pentium M to throttle clock speed when the system is idle in order to conserve energy, using the SpeedStep 3 technology (which has more sleep stages than previous versions of SpeedStep). With this technology, a 1.6 GHz Pentium M can effectively throttle to clock speeds of 600 MHz, 800 MHz, 1000 MHz, 1200 MHz, 1400 MHz and 1600 MHz; these intermediate clock states allow the CPU to better throttle clock speed to suit conditions. The power requirements of the Pentium M varies from 5 watts when idle to 27 watts at full load. This is useful to notebook manufacturers as it allows them to include the Pentium M into smaller notebooks.
Although Intel marketed the Pentium M exclusively as a mobile product, motherboard manufacturers such as
2003-2006 Logo | 2006-2008 Logo | Laptop | ||
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Code-name | Process | Date released | ||
Banias Dothan |
(130 nm) (90 nm) |
Mar 2003 Jun 2004 | ||
List of Intel Pentium M processors |
Banias
As the M line was originally designed in
The Banias family processors internally support Physical Address Extension (PAE) but do not show the PAE support flag in their CPUID information; this causes some operating systems (primarily Linux distributions) to refuse to boot on such processors since PAE support is required in their kernels.[8] Using the 'forcepae' Linux boot option will allow Linux to boot using PAE in these cases. Windows 8 and later also refuses to boot on these processors for the same reason, as they specifically require PAE support to run properly. Attempting to boot with these processors installed (as well as on Dothan family processors without PAE support flag enabled in their CPUID info) will result in a crash when attempting to load ntoskrnl.exe early on in the boot process, with error code 0xc0000260 (UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR).[9]
Dothan
On September 17, 2003, Intel unveiled plans for releasing its then next-generation of Pentium M processors, codenamed "Dothan" by them. It was named after another
These 700 series Dothan Pentium M processors retain the same basic design as the original Banias Pentium M, but are manufactured on a
Revisions of the Dothan core were released in the first quarter of 2005 with the Sonoma chipsets and supported a 533 MT/s FSB and XD (Intel's name for the NX bit); and the PAE support flag in the CPUID was enabled, unlike earlier Pentium Ms that showed PAE unavailable. This resolved boot errors in Linux distributions as well as in Windows 8 and later. These revised Dothan processors include the 730 (1.6 GHz), 740 (1.73 GHz), 750 (1.86 GHz), 760 (2.0 GHz), 770 (2.13 GHz) and 780 (2.26 GHz) and have a TDP of 27 W and a 2 MB L2 cache.
In July 2005, Intel released the 780 (2.26 GHz) and the low-voltage 778 (1.60 GHz).
The processor line had models running at clock speeds from 1.0 GHz to 2.26 GHz as of July 2005[update]. The models with lower frequencies were either low voltage or ultra-low voltage CPUs designed for improved battery life and reduced heat output. The 718 (1.3 GHz), 738 (1.4 GHz), and 758 (1.5 GHz) models are low-voltage (1.116 V) with a TDP of 10 W, while the 723 (1.0 GHz), 733 (1.1 GHz), and 753 (1.2 GHz) models are ultra-low voltage (0.940 V) with a TDP of 5 W.
Intel A100 series
An ultra low-power microprocessor based on the Dothan built on a 90 nm process with 512 KB L2 cache and 400 MT/s front side bus (FSB).
Core Solo and Core Duo
The next generation of processors, codenamed
See also
References
- ^ "Product Change Notification #106928–02". Intel. December 27, 2006. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
- ^ Stokes, Jon (25 February 2004). "A Look at Centrino's Core: The Pentium M". Ars Technica. Retrieved 11 November 2019.
- ^ Shimpi, Anand Lal. "Intel's 90nm Pentium M 755: Dothan Investigated". www.anandtech.com. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
- ^ Intel's Centrino Duo Notebook Technology
- ^ "Intel Pentium M 740 PCSTATS Review - Benchmarks: Office Productivity, SiSoft Sandra 2005". Archived from the original on 2013-10-29. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
- ^ "Mooly Eden: A look into the origins of Core 2 Duo". Tom's Hardware. 20 September 2006.
- ^ Shimpi, Anand Lal. "Intel's Centrino CPU (Pentium-M): Revolutionizing the Mobile World". AnandTech. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
- ^ "PAE - Community Help Wiki". Ubuntu Help.
- ^ This Does Not Compute. Can You Install Windows 10 on a Pentium II?. YouTube. Section starts at 32:35.
- ^ Intel Outlines Plans For Wireless Notebook PCs, Cell Phones And Handhelds, Intel Corporation
- ^ Intel launches Dothan with Pentium M price cuts, The Register
External links
- Intel's Pentium M Homepage (via internet archive)
- Intel's list of all Pentium M variants
- Intel Processor comparison table
- Homepage of the software "Notebook Hardware Control"
- Homepage of the Software "Linux-PHC" to undervolt a Pentium M with linux
- Yonah details from X86-secret (french translated to English through google)
- AnandTech: Yonah Performance Preview
- SpeedswitchXP - CPU frequency control for notebooks