The Intel Pentium 4 was the last CPU designed by Intel during the XXth century. The P4 architecture project managed by Glenn Hinton was started in 1998.
However, the Pentium III was released while the Pentium 4 was still being finished. It was finally released on November 20th, 2000.

The Pentium 4 had four major evolutions :

- Willamette Core  introduced on November 20th, 2000
- Northwood Core introduced on May 21th, 2003
- Prescott Core introduced on February 1st, 2004
- Cedar Mill Core introduced on Jannuary 5th, 2006.

The last Pentium 4 was manufactured on August 8th, 2008.