Intel is a well-known microprocessor vendor. Microprocessors produced by Intel became popular with the highly successful IBM Personal Computer (PC), introduced in 1981. The IBM PC used the early members of the Intel x86-microprocessor family and the Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS), giving Intel and Microsoft early market share and increased product recognition. The progression of Intel PC processors, with a few variations, has gone from the 8086, through the 80286 (or just 286, as the 80 is often dropped), the 386, and the 486. The 586 was renamed the Pentium for legal and marketing reasons. Among the Pentium family are the Pentium Pro, the Celeron, and the Pentium II, III, IV, M, and Xeon. Read about the history of Intel microprocessors. Find out about the latest processors developed by Intel.
Companies such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) now market processor chips that are compatible with the Pentium family. These chips, called "Pentium clones," are typically less expensive and sometimes even faster than Intel's products. There is an ongoing battle among chip manufacturers to provide the fastest processors at the lowest cost. Although Intel retains the majority of the market share for Pentium-type processors, chips from other vendors are finding increasing acceptance, especially in less expensive systems designed for home use. Read about AMD's processors.
Another widely-used processor architecture is the PowerPC used in the Macintosh family of computers. The PowerPC was based on IBM's architecture and then modified by Motorola and Apple. Database servers storing large amounts of data are sometimes built around the SPARC family of processors developed by Sun Microsystems. On the smaller side, there are many specialized processor chip families created for embedded applications, such as automobiles or cellular phones. A cell phone is actually a moderately powerful computer with a radio transmitter as its main peripheral device. If you are interested, you can find out about how a cell phone works.
There are also some Web sites that compare CPU specifications and CPU prices. If you come across unfamiliar terms, there are reference resources on the Web such as Geek.com or Webopedia. When comparing processors, keep in mind that some processors with a "mobile" or a "-M" label in its name indicate that they can be used for laptops. For example, AMD Mobile Duron and Mobile Athlon XP are for laptops. Processors for laptop computers generally have slower processing speeds, in exchange for lower power consumption and longer battery life. Intel's "mobile" or "-M" processors are for laptops, and Transmeta processors are mostly for laptops.
