- Tuesday, 24 November 2009
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My wife and I were fighting like hammer and tongs. She won, she had the hammer - Tommy Cooper
Intel's renaming miffs enthusiasts
CHIPZILLA'S move to rename some of its chips is miffing a lot of its customers.
Yesterday Intel announced that it was making changes to the naming convention of Core processors. The Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad will be replaced by names like Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7, depending on the type of PC and configuration.
Chips for entry-level desktops and laptops will carry the Core i3 brand, while chips for mid-level and high-end PCs will have Core i5 and Core i7 label. The Core i7 tag is already being used on Nehalem-based chips.
The names Atom, Celeron and Pentium will remain although the Centrino brand to describe mobile laptop platforms will be phased out.
The announcement was made on Intel's blog site but independent bloggers have been spitting tacks about the names, claiming that the changes do nothing to tell man and beast how the Core chip would perform.
Apparently the logic of having chip names that actually tell the user what is inside them has escaped Intel.
If you buy a Core 2 Duo, punters know that they are getting a two-core processor made out of Core 2. Usually the clock speed is advertised as well. But what the hell is a Core i5 when it is at home?
It seems the mystery is only open to those in Intel's marketing department, one blogger pointed out.µ
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The 5 stands for a quad-core which includes a "chosen one"-core ... the turbomode-one. So you buy a general quad-core with the magic turbo-modus ;-).
Do I understand correctly that intel new business model is pulling an Nvidia rebranding?
This isn't renaming. They're launching new CPU's and they're giving them new names. Not like Nvidia who keep renaming 3 generations old products so that people think they're new ones.
Intel's new naming scheme is annoying, but it isn't anywhere near as bad as nvidia's case.
Intel have finally gained the vaguest idea about branding.
Lost me when they introduced the Celeron -- like a Pentium but more crappier ? Then they stopped using the core speed as a name, so further confusion. Then there was Core 2 Duo vs Dual Core -- huh?
Product naming isn't rocket science but
Mercedes Benz took years to see that calling cars after engine size (190 for a 1900cc for example) didn't work when models came with 5 different sized engines. So now Mercs have C class, E class like BMW have 3, 5, 7 series.
I was looking through the lists of Core Duos and seeing E6***, E8*** etc. CPUs and all with larger or smaller caches etc. which didnt seem to tie in with the model numbers.
Lower model numbers had larger caches than seemingly newer chips and not always corrsponding speeds either.
The only bit that made sense was dual or quad.
This is the problem when you are bringing out new die size and ranges of chips every six months is that you get serious overlap (performance wise) with previous generations and your naming system goes to pot.
There has been speculation that Intel might rebrand Core 2 CPUs as "Core i3."
There was a time when things were clear and simple. Punters actually knew exactly what they were getting for there money. In fact, AMD was the one that started this confusion at one point under the argument that MHz does not necessarily reflect performance. Intel realized that sane naming was not actually working as well as they like to for the bottom line (punters were making value informed decisions), so Intel marketing introduced naming that confused everyone with exception for some geek masters that follow and can interpret benchmarks. After the confusion, many were happily paying (or overpaying ) for older processor families without feeling guilty. However, in the middle of processor evolution, naming order some how slipped into naming processors again from beneath Intel marketing Radar. Suddenly they realized that processor family naming was clear enough for punters to do informed decisions again. Hence, it was time to introduce confusion into processor naming yet another time.
Nick,
"Apparently the logic of having chip names that actually tell the user what is inside them has escaped Intel." By now you should have enough experience to know that making sense is just strictly forbidden. There is a GoDaddy video that shows how a marketing department works. Further, in Dilbert the sign over the portal to the marketing department says "Two Drink Minimum". And they do mean MINIMUM!
the Mad Winemaker
I always thought that the point of a brand was to burn (hence 'brand') your product's identity and purpose into the customers' minds.
This is more like having a tattoo across the width of your chest, reading "I love [this space intentionally blank]".
im sick of nvidia's messin around
once upon a time things were great, they had the geforce fx come out which shook up things for them a lot (not such a great chip though), then the geforce 6 which was genuinely 2x faster than the geforce fx, then as far as i can remember, the geforce 7 was approx 2x faster, and the geforce 8 was maybe 1.5x faster than the 7... then with the geforce 9, and these new i dunno 275, 295 or whatever they are, well they're all just overclocked geforce 8... nvidia need to really sort their act out... so do ATI... i think the whole graphics card sector has just become lazy...
although saying that, it's not as though games manufacturers are making any amazing breakthroughs, so im not sure if we can blame gfx card manufacturers for not making anything significantly faster
People Have ONE Goal, STEAL Entire SheBangum. Not Only Do Employees STEAL from Company, Each One Wants To Steal Entire Company.
Changing Names HELPS Erase Good Feeling of I Know That, Therefore ITS Mine. Its Simple trick & 3,5,7 arn't that hard to figure Out. SALES Are Anticapated & That Means EASY. Every member of Public IS About to Embark ON: Give Me My Intel, NOW & Then Give Me Intel. Hahaha. People Are Silly Pirates. Give ME My AirLiner.
Draship 8808.X
This must be because of Apple -- all that i's can't be a coincidence :-)
Probably setting myself up here for another round of flames, but what the heck... I have thick skin.
We are trying to make the names simpler, as we bring out new products. It's a sincere effort. The current names are confusing, and the "naming structure" simply doesn't work going forward.
Celeron = good
Pentium = better
Core = best
Since we have a lot of flavors for Core in the future (the Nehalem architecture, for those of you who keep track), we came up with 3 tiers, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 (and, yes, i7 is the best of the best)
We are not RENAMING existing products. That would be silly, indeed. Core2 Duo, Core2 Quad, Centrino 2, etc. will all stay the same until those products move off the roadmap.
Finally, not to get all serious and stuff, but the names have to be simple for the customer out there who doesn't care about sockets or virtual cores or threads. And short of putting secret decoder rings in buckets when you walk in to Best Buy, we had to get down to a basic line up for the folks who don't read The Inquirer, can understand.
When we launch the Lynnfield and Clarkfield chips later this year, the distinction between Core i5 and Core i7 will be more clear. And not long after that, when the Core i3 chips will come out, and the range of the new Core processors will (hopefully) complete the picture.
Sorry, I read this as Intel is renaming "miffs enthusiasts". Mayhaps they just muffed up...
Cos you can all reel off the differences between a 386DX and a 486SX just from the chip name.
Actually you lot probably can.