Maybe also not so often seeing today: Pentium MMX 200 with only 2,45V VCore. Mobile version of the P55C, should run on every Socket 7 Desktop Mainboard. Runs completely Prime stable with 300 MHz at 2,8V. Tested on a DFI K6BV3+ VIA MVP3 Mainboard. Also posts with 300 Mhz at 2,7V, but only Bench stable.

How about NEC V53A (μPD70236A). Its a souped-up SoC version of NEC V30 with separate ram/address busses and new execution core after Intel microcode lawsuits, pretty much 286 without protected mode but much faster per clock. Afaik only ever used in one product - Sharp Zaurus PI-B304/B308.

I cannot believe it took me 27 years to find a Pentium 150Mhz passively while removing an hdd from an old client's pc. First time i see one even im working in IT and repaired tens of thousands computers

I have seen tons of pentiums ranging from 75 to 233mhz but never a 150Mhz

That just left the gold tops 60 and 66mhz wich i only seen in the computer history museum in CA

Living wrote on 2023-04-18, 19:26:

I cannot believe it took me 27 years to find a Pentium 150Mhz passively while removing an hdd from an old client's pc. First time i see one even im working in IT and repaired tens of thousands computers

I have seen tons of pentiums ranging from 75 to 233mhz but never a 150Mhz

That just left the gold tops 60 and 66mhz wich i only seen in the computer history museum in CA

i got one in an old laptop, i hadn't noted many before - always seemed like a nice round number!

P150 was a pretty popular chip, so I find this surprising.

Should have one or two Pentium 150. Nothing special about it 😉

Living wrote on 2023-04-18, 19:26:

That just left the gold tops 60 and 66mhz wich i only seen in the computer history museum in CA

So this thing is rare?

jmarsh wrote on 2023-04-26, 10:11:

Living wrote on 2023-04-18, 19:26:

That just left the gold tops 60 and 66mhz wich i only seen in the computer history museum in CA

So this thing is rare?

pentium60.jpg

Uncommon, yes, but not rare. The ceramic ones are actually harder to come by - especially in 66 MHz 😉

I got a 60mhz ceramic one in my first PC.
In the last 27+ years I only came across gold tops... and not a single one was a 66mhz version.

I have a gold top Pentium 66 but I don't use it, I do not even think I have tested it.

My two Socket 4 boards, one Intel Batman and one LPX-board in a complete AST-box both run Pentium 60@66 .

jmarsh wrote on 2023-04-26, 10:11:

Living wrote on 2023-04-18, 19:26:

That just left the gold tops 60 and 66mhz wich i only seen in the computer history museum in CA

So this thing is rare?

pentium60.jpg

It's rare not because it's a gold top, but because it says "processor". That was removed at some point.

I also find it kind of hard to believe that the gold tops are more common than the plain ceramic ones. Weren't all the replacements for the FDIV chips ceramic?

A P66 gold top in pristine condition is rare. Most of the ones installed into OEM PCs had the heatsinks glued on. It's hard to remove them without screwing up the silkscreen.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2023-05-03, 08:58:

It's rare not because it's a gold top, but because it says "processor". That was removed at some point. […]
Show full quote

jmarsh wrote on 2023-04-26, 10:11:

Living wrote on 2023-04-18, 19:26:

That just left the gold tops 60 and 66mhz wich i only seen in the computer history museum in CA

So this thing is rare?

pentium60.jpg

It's rare not because it's a gold top, but because it says "processor". That was removed at some point.

I also find it kind of hard to believe that the gold tops are more common than the plain ceramic ones. Weren't all the replacements for the FDIV chips ceramic?

A P66 gold top in pristine condition is rare. Most of the ones installed into OEM PCs had the heatsinks glued on. It's hard to remove them without screwing up the silkscreen.

Ah, I had never thought about the "Precessor" wording. I have two gold tops. One almost pristine 75Mhz and one I can't tell the speed of because it has a small label on the bottom covering the model number (derp). Neither one says "Processor" however. Now I'm wondering if the Packard Bell with a P66 gold top I had and sold a 3 years ago was marked this way or not... oh well. 😜

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2023-05-03, 08:58:

It's rare not because it's a gold top, but because it says "processor". That was removed at some point. […]
Show full quote

jmarsh wrote on 2023-04-26, 10:11:

Living wrote on 2023-04-18, 19:26:

That just left the gold tops 60 and 66mhz wich i only seen in the computer history museum in CA

So this thing is rare?

pentium60.jpg

It's rare not because it's a gold top, but because it says "processor". That was removed at some point.

I also find it kind of hard to believe that the gold tops are more common than the plain ceramic ones. Weren't all the replacements for the FDIV chips ceramic?

A P66 gold top in pristine condition is rare. Most of the ones installed into OEM PCs had the heatsinks glued on. It's hard to remove them without screwing up the silkscreen.

There's a bit about gold vs ceramic P5 here:

https://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php … p=317495#317495

I'll have to ask John about that.

P66 was a pretty rare processor in either package. The vast majority of P5s sold were the 60MHz parts.
Socket4 as a whole was pretty rare. I only saw them used in Dells and IBMs.
As for a lot of ceramic models being destroyed due to the heatsinks being glued on, I could definitely believe that.

What I heard was that Intel used the ceramic packaging on all of their FDIV replacements (it was cheaper), and they apparently produced one fixed version for every FDIV version ever made. I think I also heard that to this day if you contact intel, you can still arrange to mail in your FDIV CPU and get a replacement. My guess is that quite a few people didn't bother to replace their faulty chips and intel still has quite a few on hand.

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2023-05-06, 03:40:

. My guess is that quite a few people didn't bother to replace their faulty chips and intel still has quite a few on hand.

Any idea what the replacements look like?

I took the heat sink off a P60 years ago. The gold looks OK, but there is still a lot of pink epoxy on the ceramic. I wouldn’t mind exchanging it for a clean chip.

I'm pretty sure the replacements are just CPGA with the silkscreen from the P54C.

douglar wrote on 2023-05-06, 13:09:

Anonymous Coward wrote on 2023-05-06, 03:40:

. My guess is that quite a few people didn't bother to replace their faulty chips and intel still has quite a few on hand.

Any idea what the replacements look like?

I took the heat sink off a P60 years ago. The gold looks OK, but there is still a lot of pink epoxy on the ceramic. I wouldn’t mind exchanging it for a clean chip.

My guess is they're Gold top chips, as John wrote in the thread on CPU-World, the full ceramic chips had heat issues, and as such were produced for a short period of time only.

My P60 machine I'm fairly sure has an FDIV bugged ceramic, don't know the S-Spec though. It's in a P5MP3 board.

The fastest AMD Turion 64 X2 Tyler AMD K8 Dual-Core Socket S1 Notebook CPU, the TL-68 version with 2400 MHz, also not so often seeing.

H3nrik V! wrote on 2023-05-08, 06:13:

My guess is they're Gold top chips, as John wrote in the thread on CPU-World, the full ceramic chips had heat issues, and as such were produced for a short period of time only.

You're probably right about the replacements being gold tops.

I didn't talk to John, but I looked through a bunch of photos of full ceramic Socket4s. The latest one I found was from week 44 of 1993. They were introduced on Mar 22 (week 14), so that implies they were made for at least six months. I'm not sure exactly when they stopped though. It could have been as late as early 1994.
I never realised the ceramic ones were mostly made in 1993. The gold tops were still being made in 1995.

It seems that the "processor" marked chips were also mostly made in 1993. The one in this thread is from early 1994. My guess is that is one of the last before it was dropped.
What was the significance? FDIV? Do all Pentiums with "processor" has FDIV?

*edit*
It looks to me like "processor"was phased out with the introduction of the 3.3V Pentiums. At least I haven't been able to find one with that marking. The latest picture of a Socket4 chip with the marking I could find was week 14 1994. The earliest without was week 31. So the change happened around week 20.
FDIV wasn't publicly discovered until October 1994, but intel knew about it in May. It seems that pretty much all pre-1995 Pentiums have FDIV.