<processor> Intel's superscalar successor to the 486. It has the following features: Dual 32 bit 486-type integer pipelines with dependency checking; can execute a maximum of two instructions per cycle; Pipelined floating-point; 16 kilobyte of on-chip cache; Branch prediction; A 64 bit memory interface; 3.1 million transistors on a 262.4 mm2 die; ~2.3 million transistors in the core logic; clock rate 66MHz; heat dissipation 16W; integer performance 64.5 SPECint92; floating-point performance 56.9 SPECfp92; 8 32 bit general-purpose registers; 8 80 bit floating-point registers.
It is called "Pentium" because it is the fifth in the 80x86 line. It would have been called the 80586 had a US court not ruled that you can't trademark a number. The internal implementation is discussed in the "Microprocessor Report" newsletter of March 29, 1993 (volume 7, number 4). The January 25, 1994 issue of PC Magazine covers Pentium based machines.
The successors are/will be called P6 (or "Pentium Pro") and P7.
Here is a FAQ about the bug in the Pentium's floating-point divide instruction, discovered in October 1994.
(16 Nov 1995)