Pentium is the flagship series of Intel processors. With the launch of Celeron (low priced microprocessor brand) in 1998 the company had planned to discontinue the Pentium series, but such was the demand of the mid-range dual core processors that the Pentium processors were re launched by Intel in 2006 as Pentium Dual Core in order to get back the Pentium trademark back to the market. These processors are based on Core micro architecture, and have a lower internal clock rate and less L2 cache memory. It has two cores which are capable of working parallel using the same memory. In 2009 Intel changed the name of Pentium Dual Core back to Pentium.
The Pentium Dual Core brand processors were first used in notebooks in early 2007. The first processors were T2060, T T2080, and T2130. These were based on 32 bit Yonah core. They were very similar to the Core Duo T2050 processor but the only difference was a lower cache memory; 1MB L2 Cache Memory in Pentium dual core while the Core Duo processor had 2 MB L2 Cache Memory.
In June 2007 Intel released desktop Pentium Dual-Core branded processors: Pentium E2140 and E2160. This processor was similar to the Core 2 Duo E4300 processor but with the only difference was in the L2 cache, the 2 MB L2 Cache was replaced by 1 MB L2 Cache. The processors are highly overclockable. This step was taken to target the budget market and the Pentium brand was relegated to the economy segment from the mainstream brand.
In the last quarter of 2007 Pentium Dual Core processors based on Core 2 Duo models were launched: T2310, T2330, and T2370. These processors used Merom core which happens to be the mobile version of Allendale processor. Even in these processors the clock speed and the cache memory was lower.
In August 2008 Intel launched the 45nm E5200 which was based on the Wolfdale processor. This model had a higher clock speed of 2.5 GHz and larger L2 cache memory of 2 MB. The Wolfdale is actually a dual core desktop Penryn core that comes with a 6 MB L2 cache shared by the two cores that use 45nm process technology. Just like other Pentium Dual Core processors only a part of its L2 cache is enabled.
Many confuse between Pentium Dual Core processors and Pentium D processors. These are both totally different models. While the latter is based on NetBurst micro architecture, the Pentium Dual core is based on Core micro architecture.