Most of us who are running Intel processors are past the Pentium phases of our lives and are now rocking chips from the Core brand – be it a Core 2 Duo or a newer Nehalem-based Core i7. But according to a document that X-bit labs claims to have seen, the Pentium is still the most popular Intel processor.
According to the report, Intel projects that Pentium-branded processors will account for roughly 42 to 43 percent of Intel’s desktop chips volume in 2010. Core 2 chips won't be far behind at 40 percent of the mix, with Atom hitting 8 percent and Nehalem-based chips at 6 percent. (We're unsure as to what happened with the remaining 3 to 4 percent, but it could be Celeron.)
Although Intel did not provide comment in the report, the numbers so seem plausible on a worldwide scale. As much as we demand that our new computers be packing one of the latest chips, much of the mainstream market (especially in parts of the worldwide market) is price sensitive to the point that the older and much cheaper technology is preferred.
The popularity of the Pentium is not unusual, given that it is arguably Intel's strongest brand since it launched the first Pentium CPU nearly 17 years ago. With the steady rise and replacement of the Core brand, however, Pentium will likely be on the way out starting in 2011.
And now, a video that says it all:
