A Pentium compatible processor (or Pentium clone) is a 32-bit

32-bit

The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....

 processor computer chip which supports the instructions in the IA-32

IA-32

IA-32 , also known as x86-32, i386 or x86, is the CISC instruction-set architecture of Intel's most commercially successful microprocessors, and was first implemented in the Intel 80386 as a 32-bit extension of x86 architecture...

 instruction set that were implemented by the Intel P5

P5 (microarchitecture)

The original Pentium microprocessor was introduced on March 22, 1993. Its microarchitecture, deemed P5, was Intel's fifth-generation and first superscalar x86 microarchitecture. As a direct extension of the 80486 architecture, it included dual integer pipelines, a faster FPU, wider data bus,...

 Pentium processor family (also known as Classic Pentium, or original Pentium). The IA-32 instruction set first appeared in the 80386 processor; the 80486 added a few instructions to IA-32, and the P5 Pentium family added a few more instructions beyond that.

Pentium compatible processors are sometimes referred to as 586-architecture processors. Later processors are also considered to be Pentium compatible, because they still support the instructions supported by the P5 Pentium family.

This class of processors is typically used in IBM PC compatible

IBM PC compatible

IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...

 computers.

List

Here are some processors that implement all of the instructions that the P5 Pentium processor family implemented:

• AMD K5
  AMD K5
  The K5 was AMD's first x86 processor to be developed entirely in-house. Introduced in March 1996, its primary competition was Intel's Pentium microprocessor. The K5 was an ambitious design, closer to a Pentium Pro than a Pentium regarding technical solutions and internal architecture...
  
  
• AMD K6
  AMD K6
  The K6 microprocessor was launched by AMD in 1997. The main advantage of this particular microprocessor is that it was designed to fit into existing desktop designs for Pentium branded CPUs. It was marketed as a product which could perform as well as its Intel Pentium II equivalent but at a...
  
  
• AMD Athlon
  Athlon
  Athlon is the brand name applied to a series of x86-compatible microprocessors designed and manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices . The original Athlon was the first seventh-generation x86 processor and, in a first, retained the initial performance lead it had over Intel's competing processors...
  
  
• AMD Duron
  Duron
  The AMD Duron was an x86-compatible microprocessor manufactured by AMD. It was released on June 19, 2000 as a low-cost alternative to AMD's own Athlon processor and the Pentium III and Celeron processor lines from rival Intel...
  
  
• AMD Opteron
  Opteron
  Opteron is AMD's x86 server and workstation processor line, and was the first processor which supported the AMD64 instruction set architecture . It was released on April 22, 2003 with the SledgeHammer core and was intended to compete in the server and workstation markets, particularly in the same...
  
  
• AMD Athlon 64
  Athlon 64
  The Athlon 64 is an eighth-generation, AMD64-architecture microprocessor produced by AMD, released on September 23, 2003. It is the third processor to bear the name Athlon, and the immediate successor to the Athlon XP...
  
  
• AMD Sempron
  Sempron
  Sempron has been the marketing name used by AMD for several different budget desktop CPUs, using several different technologies and CPU socket formats. The Sempron replaced the AMD Duron processor and competes against Intel's Celeron series of processors...
  
  
• AMD Turion 64
• Intel Pentium
• Intel Pentium MMX
• Intel Pentium Pro
  Pentium Pro
  The Pentium Pro is a sixth-generation x86 microprocessor developed and manufactured by Intel introduced in November 1, 1995 . It introduced the P6 microarchitecture and was originally intended to replace the original Pentium in a full range of applications...
  
  
• Intel Pentium II
  Pentium II
  The Pentium II brand refers to Intel's sixth-generation microarchitecture and x86-compatible microprocessors introduced on May 7, 1997. Containing 7.5 million transistors, the Pentium II featured an improved version of the first P6-generation core of the Pentium Pro, which contained 5.5 million...
  
  
• Intel Pentium III
  Pentium III
  The Pentium III brand refers to Intel's 32-bit x86 desktop and mobile microprocessors based on the sixth-generation P6 microarchitecture introduced on February 26, 1999. The brand's initial processors were very similar to the earlier Pentium II-branded microprocessors...
  
  
• Intel Pentium 4
  Pentium 4
  Pentium 4 was a line of single-core desktop and laptop central processing units , introduced by Intel on November 20, 2000 and shipped through August 8, 2008. They had a 7th-generation x86 microarchitecture, called NetBurst, which was the company's first all-new design since the introduction of the...
  
  
• Intel Pentium D
  Pentium D
  The Pentium D brand refers to two series of desktop dual-core 64-bit x86-64 microprocessors with the NetBurst microarchitecture manufactured by Intel. Each CPU comprised two dies, each containing a single core, residing next to each other on a multi-chip module package. The brand's first processor,...
  
  
• Intel Celeron
  Celeron
  Celeron is a brand name given by Intel Corp. to a number of different x86 computer microprocessor models targeted at budget personal computers....
  
  
• Intel Xeon
  Xeon
  The Xeon is a brand of multiprocessing- or multi-socket-capable x86 microprocessors from Intel Corporation targeted at the non-consumer server, workstation and embedded system markets.-Overview:...
  
  
• Intel Pentium M
  Pentium M
  The Pentium M brand refers to a family of mobile single-core x86 microprocessors introduced in March 2003 , and forming a part of the Intel Carmel notebook platform under the then new Centrino brand...
  
  
• Intel Core
  Intel Core
  Yonah was the code name for Intel's first generation of 65 nm process mobile microprocessors, based on the Banias/Dothan-core Pentium M microarchitecture. SIMD performance has been improved through the addition of SSE3 instructions and improvements to SSE and SSE2 implementations, while integer...
  
  
• Intel Core 2
  Intel Core 2
  Core 2 is a brand encompassing a range of Intel's consumer 64-bit x86-64 single-, dual-, and quad-core microprocessors based on the Core microarchitecture. The single- and dual-core models are single-die, whereas the quad-core models comprise two dies, each containing two cores, packaged in a...
  
  
• VIA C3
  VIA C3
  The VIA C3 is a family of x86 central processing units for personal computers designed by Centaur Technology and sold by VIA Technologies. The different CPU cores are built following the design methodology of Centaur Technology.-Samuel 2 and Ezra cores:...
  
  
• VIA C7
  VIA C7
  The VIA C7 is an x86 central processing unit designed by Centaur Technology and sold by VIA Technologies.- Product history :The C7 delivers a number of improvements to the older VIA C3 cores but is nearly identical to the latest VIA C3 Nehemiah core. The C7 was officially launched in May 2005,...
  
  
• VIA Nano
  VIA Nano
  The VIA Nano is a 64-bit CPU for personal computers. The VIA Nano was released by VIA Technologies in 2008 after five years of development by its CPU division, Centaur Technology...
  
  

Software Compatibility

Any software that uses only instructions supported by the P5 Pentium processor family, and that can run on that processor is considered to be Pentium compatible.

Software that uses instructions added to IA-32 after the P5 Pentium was released, and that therefore will not run on a vanilla P5 Pentium, is considered not to be Pentium compatible.

64-bit Processors

Recently, 64-bit

64-bit

64-bit is a word size that defines certain classes of computer architecture, buses, memory and CPUs, and by extension the software that runs on them. 64-bit CPUs have existed in supercomputers since the 1970s and in RISC-based workstations and servers since the early 1990s...

 processors, such as the AMD Athlon 64, are becoming more popular. These processors allow much larger application address space

Address space

In computing, an address space defines a range of discrete addresses, each of which may correspond to a network host, peripheral device, disk sector, a memory cell or other logical or physical entity.- Overview :...

s in computers using them. The 64-bit AMD64 instruction set is not supported by the P5 Pentium processor family, so 64-bit software will not work on Pentium compatible systems or post-Pentium compatible processors that only support the 32-bit IA-32 instruction set.