Two Cores Sharing A Home: The Dual Core 800 Series

In April 2005, the first Intel dual-core processor sample reached our labs. We assume that Intel took this step simply to be able to introduce its dual-core processors before archrival AMD got the chance, knowing well that it wouldn't be able to actually ship any CPUs before its competitor.

Two new chipsets were also unveiled together with the introduction of the Pentium D: the i945D and the i955X.

230 million transistors, 206 mm², 90 nm production process

Initial speculation that this chip would be called the Pentium 5 turned out to be wrong. Instead, Intel replaced the number in the Pentium 4's name with the letter D, as in "dual-core". Thus, the "Pentium D" name was born.

Intel retained its use of model numbers and gave the newest flagship model the 840 moniker.