Lets take a look at what makes the Pentium MMX a better choice than the Classic Pentium and the big daddy Pentium Pro:
Its 32KB of L1 Cache is double the size of the Classic Pentium's and Pentium Pro's L1 Cache, giving it an excellent speed increase in real world applications
The Pentium MMX was the first processor to use the new split-rail voltage, with its core running at 2.8v the Pentium MMX made a mobile laptop design very simple and easy to implement
Taking after the Pentium Pro, the Pentium MMX has a highly advanced core, much more advanced than the Classic Pentium. It is because of this that a Pentium MMX-166 can outperform its 200MHz Classic brother.
Lets take a look at where the Pentium MMX is and where its going:
First Generation Intel Pentium MMX Series Microprocessor | |||
Chip Name | Clock Speed | Bus Speed x Multiplier | Fab. Size |
Intel Pentium MMX 166 | 166MHz | 66 MHz x 2.5 | 0.35 micron |
Intel Pentium MMX 200 | 200MHz | 66 MHz x 3.0 | 0.35 micron |
Intel dazzled us all, for the most part, by introducing a whopping 2 new chips!!! As I mentioned earlier, the Pentium MMX's low voltage requirements made it ideal for a mobile environment. Sure enough, weeks after the release of the desktop Pentium MMX a mobile version was on the market:
First Generation Intel Mobile Pentium MMX Series Microprocessor | |||
Chip Name | Clock Speed | Bus Speed x Multiplier | Fab. Size |
Intel Mobile Pentium MMX 150 | 150MHz | 60 MHz x 2.5 | 0.35 micron |
Intel Mobile Pentium MMX 166 | 166MHz | 66 MHz x 2.5 | 0.35 micron |
By dropping the clock speed to 150MHz, Intel was able to release a mobile version of their killer Pentium MMX without sacrificing any of the excellent qualities of it. As if that wasn't enough Intel went ahead and released a new mobile Pentium MMX processor, this time clocking in at an amazing 200MHz.
Second Generation Intel Mobile Pentium MMX Series Microprocessor | |||
Chip Name | Clock Speed | Bus Speed x Multiplier | Fab. Size |
Intel Mobile Pentium MMX 200 | 200MHz | 66 MHz x 3.0 | 0.35 micron |
Originally planning to end their Socket-7 line of processors at 200MHz, however AMD surprised us all with their K6 and Cyrix demanded attention with their 6x86MX so Intel had no choice but to release a higher clock speed Pentium MMX, this time aimed at competing with the 6th generation Socket-7 CPUs that were popping up in the market. Although it clearly had no chance of matching the business performance of any of the 6th generation chips, the Pentium MMX still has some life left in it.
Second Generation Intel Pentium MMX Series Microprocessor | |||
Chip Name | Clock Speed | Bus Speed x Multiplier | Fab. Size |
Intel Pentium MMX 233 | 233MHz | 66 MHz x 3.5 | 0.35 micron |
As with the AMD K6, Intel's Pentium MMX 233 uses an internal clock multiplier designed to activate everytime a 1.5x clock multiplier is set on the motherboard, therefore by setting your jumpers to the 66MHz x 1.5 setting you get a 3.5x clock multiplier resulting in a 233MHz clock speed. And although Intel claimed that the Pentium MMX would end at 233MHz they already started working on a fab. shrink for the upcoming 266MHz Pentium MMX, codenamed Tillamook.
Here are some of Intel's plans for the future of the Pentium MMX line:
Third Generation Intel Pentium MMX Series Microprocessor | |||
Chip Name | Clock Speed | Bus Speed x Multiplier | Fab. Size |
Intel Tillamook 266 | 266MHz | 66 MHz x 4.0 | 0.28 micron |
Intel Mobile Tillamook 233 | 233MHz | 66 MHz x 3.5 | 0.28 micron |
Intel Mobile Tillamook 266 | 266MHz | 66 MHz x 4.0 | 0.28 micron |
As you can tell, Intel does have some future plans for the Pentium MMX, by shrinking their fabrication techniques to 0.28 micron or lower they will be able to produce low power solutions with support for mobile systems at clock speeds up to 266MHz. Personally, I doubt Intel will end the line at 266MHz, we should be able to expect 300 and 333MHz versions of the Tillamook sometime next year which is the release date for the Tillamook (Q1-98). Whether or not it will run at a 100MHz bus speed and if it will be able to top AMD's K6/266 and 300 will be questions that will remain unanswered until next year.
Windows 95 Performance of the Intel Pentium MMX - Business Winstone 97
Chip | Business Winstone 97 |
Intel Pentium MMX - 200 | 52.0 |
Intel Pentium MMX - 208 (theoretical) | 55.1 |
Intel Pentium MMX - 225 (theoretical) | 54.8 |
Intel Pentium MMX - 233 | 54.4 |
Intel Pentium MMX - 250 (theoretical) | 57.2 |
Intel Pentium MMX - 266 (estimated) | 56.6 |
Intel Pentium MMX - 300 (estimated) | 60.1 |
Raw Intel Pentium MMX Performance - Wintune 97 Scores
Chip | Millions of Instructions per Second (Integer) | Millions of Floating Point Instructions per Second (FPU) |
PMMX-233 | 435 | 133 |
PMMX-262.5 | 499 | 149 |
PMMX-290.5 | 537 | 166 |
Intel Pentium MMX Windows 98 Real World FPU Tests - Truespace3 Render Times
Chip | Render Time (lower is better) |
Intel Pentium MMX - 290.5 | 11:23s |
Like the AMD K6, the Pentium MMX also experiences a slight performance hit when running Windows 98 compared to when running windows 95. This could be attributed to the weaker 32 bit performance of these two chips when compared to their 16 bit performance, although I wouldn't get too alarmed since the degraded performance is barely noticeable, Win98's new interface takes most of the attention away from it =)
Intel Pentium MMX Real World FPU Tests - Truespace3 Render Times
Chip | Render Time (lower is better) |
Intel Pentium MMX - 233 | 14:11s |
Intel Pentium MMX - 262.5 | 12:14s |
Intel Pentium MMX - 290.5 | 10:83s |
Intel Pentium MMX Gaming Performance - WinQuake Framerates
Resolution | Intel Pentium MMX - 233 |
320 x 200 | 46.9 fps |
512 x 384 | 21.5 fps |
640 x 400 | 20.9 fps |
640 x 480 | 18.1 fps |
Resolution | Intel Pentium MMX - 262.5 |
320 x 200 | 56.2 fps |
512 x 384 | 24.4 fps |
640 x 400 | 23.5 fps |
640 x 480 | 20.4 fps |
Resolution | Intel Pentium MMX - 290.5 |
320 x 200 | 61.9 fps |
512 x 384 | 25.9 fps |
640 x 400 | 25.9 fps |
640 x 480 | 22.4 fps |
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bankerdude - Thursday, February 9, 2012 - link
Still rocking a Pentium MMX 233 in one of my kid's machines with Windows ME installed. I think I originally built that box in 1998 with a copy of DOS 6.2 and Windows 3.11 for Workgroups installed on it lol!part12studios - Monday, November 16, 2020 - link
do you know where i could find drivers for the USB ports for an MMX 233 mhz motherboard? i know it's not "the cpu" but it's a micron motherboard and I'm having no luck finding drivers windows 98se works with.FelixDeKat - Thursday, June 14, 2012 - link
Even though this article was written 15 years ago, seeing smiley faces in an article makes me laugh out loud. I've read a few papers I wrote back in the mid 1980's that are also quite amusing to read 25 years later.velanapontinha - Friday, January 16, 2015 - link
"WinQuake" - boy, those were the days...