Why did intel call its processors pentium and not 586?

In 1993, Intel needed a name for its new generation of microprocessors that was to replace the company's flagship at the time, the 486 chip. Considering that the previous Intel processors were called 286, 386 and 486, the most logical thing was that the new chip was called 586. However, the company released it under the name of Pentium due to a patent problem that we revealed to you then.

Intel stopped using figures in the names of its processors because of AMD

The first thing to note is that at that time Intel was not manufacturing all of its components due to lack of capacity. For this reason, the company had to close various agreements with third-party manufacturers, including IBM and AMD, to make some of the microchips.

At one point, and after a successful sales period, Intel decided to end its agreements with AMD to become the sole seller of the 80386 chips. In this situation, AMD found a rather ingenious way to continue marketing these chips, to which he simply called AMD386, followed later by AMD486. Using this technique, AMD simply placed its name in front of the last three digits of Intel's new processors, which it did not find infringing on any patents.

However, Intel decided to file a patent infringement lawsuit, arguing that if Boeing could have the patent on numbers 707, 727, etc., it should also have the rights to the name "486".

During the trial, AMD argued that Intel had never called its chips 486, but that its full name was I80486, so the company deserved the rights to the full name and not the last three digits. In this way, Intel lost the case and learned a hard lesson: completely abandon the figures in the names of its new processors.

Finally, Intel turned to Lexicon Branding, a Californian company that had also created the names PowerBook and DeskJet, in order to find an appropriate name and the possibility of being registered in the Patent and Trademark Office. In the end, they found their name: Pentium, derived from the Greek penta, meaning "five" (reflecting the 586 series designation).