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Intel To Rebrand Processors In 2008

Posted by kdawson on Sat Sep 29, 2007 03:58 PM
from the clearing-the-cluttered-landscape dept.
Intel Hardware
DJ notes that TechARP has up a look at Intel's plans to rebrand their processors, including what must be a leaked internal chart of the old and new landscape of product names. This story doesn't seem to have been picked up anywhere else yet. Quoting: "We just heard from an anonymous source that Intel will be rebranding their processors in 2008... These new brand names will come into effect on the first day of 2008. Intel hopes that these new brands will not only leverage the strong Core 2 brand but also make it less confusing for the consumer. At the moment, the Intel Centrino mobile platform has five different logos with brands like Centrino, Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro. Starting from January 1, 2008, Intel will consolidate the Centrino Duo and Centrino brands under the Intel Centrino brand, and rename the Centrino Pro as Intel Centrino with vPro Technology."
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  • Re-rebranding? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BarlowBrad (940854) on Saturday September 29 2007, @04:00PM (#20795877)
    Didn't Intel just rebrand dropping "Pentium" and going with "Core"?

  • from a trusted source (Score:5, Funny)

    by Speare (84249) on Saturday September 29 2007, @04:01PM (#20795897) Homepage

    I just heard that the new names range from Confusium to Confusium Core 2 Gold Pro Deluxe 1800 Gamma.

    Seriously, though, when has Intel ever simplified the brands to make things easier?

    • Exactly (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Jeremiah Cornelius (137) * on Saturday September 29 2007, @04:59PM (#20796275) Homepage Journal
      God. What stupid and uninformative names.

      They convey neither a perception and ready identification of the product's capability - nor do they associate with anything meaningful - allowing for that association to transfer value to the named object.

      Just call them like motorcars and aeroplanes - when these were sensible.

      "The Intel Mark VIII C" "The Intel Mark V plus"

      They could at least be compared reasonably in relation to each other.
        • "Words matter, for words are the tools of thought, and you will often find that you are thinking badly because you are using the wrong tools, trying to bore a hole with a screw-driver, or draw a cork with a coal-hammer."
          -- A.P. Herbert, 1935 :-)

          I like a Phantom V [darkforce.com] - I can tell it from a Phantom VI [darkforce.com], or a Jag Mark 10 Saloon. [big-jags.de]
    • It was easier to keep track of what was what back before they dropped the pure numbering scheme.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by netmansam (1164217)
      >> when has Intel ever simplified the brands to make things easier?

      Um, unless you're less than 15 years old, you should remember clearly...

      There was that somewhat notable time after their fourth generation (fifth model) of processors with names the simplest of which was like 80486-66 or 80486-SX15 or 80486DX-50, to their fifth generation of processors, called simply:

      Pentium

      (so named supposedly because they couldn't trademark 80586)

      That seems both simpler, a more recognizable model line, AND easier?

      Sub

  • Naming processors (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Baron_Yam (643147) on Saturday September 29 2007, @04:02PM (#20795905)
    Would it be too hard to name them: Intel [marketing name] [standard benchmark rating]?

    Then, for those who want more - socket/clock/cache/whatever.

    • Would it be too hard to name them: Intel [marketing name] [standard benchmark rating]?

      Brilliant! We should create a standard benchmark for everything! Imagine if cars were named "Honda Ridgeline 1267" and "Toyota Corolla 1605" - you'd know which one was right for you just by comparing the rating!
  • TFA: "In the server and workstation segment, Intel will continue to retain the Xeon and Itanium brand names, but with new logos. The Itanium 2 logo, in particular, will only say Itanium Inside. The desktop Core 2 brands and logos will see no changes in 2008."

    So yes, you still get the same old ugly sticker on new desktops.
    • Let me get this straight: "The Itanium 2 logo, in particular, will only say Itanium Inside"

      ...Isn't that sort of like a Pentium4 logo just saying, "Pentium Inside"? I mean, the Itanium was the first generation IA-64 cpu...and, architecture arguments aside, by the time it was released it wasn't even competitive. So why the retro label?

  • Huh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Gorimek (61128) on Saturday September 29 2007, @04:07PM (#20795927) Homepage
    So they're renaming Centrino to Centrino? That's awesome!

    I'm getting Smurf flashbacks.

    • So they're renaming Centrino to Centrino? That's awesome!


      Yeah, but replacing all the letterhead stationery is going to be expensive.

      Chris Mattern

  • Oh to have simple names (Score:5, Funny)

    by haaz (3346) on Saturday September 29 2007, @04:15PM (#20795975) Homepage
    I can never remember if my MacBook has a dual core Core Duo 2 or if it's a duo core Core 2 Dou Dual II or a Coral Dualo Duex 2. :-\

    • I can never remember if my MacBook has a dual core Core Duo 2 or if it's a duo core Core 2 Dou Dual II or a Coral Dualo Duex 2. :-\


      Bah, why remember. Whenever you want to check, just pull it out and have a look. That way you can be sure what you have: A Duo Ex Machina.

  • Catchy (Score:5, Funny)

    by clarkkent09 (1104833) on Saturday September 29 2007, @04:16PM (#20795981)
    rename the Centrino Pro as Intel Centrino with vPro Technology

    Much better....
  • I thought the whole point was to confuse the user since they finally gave up on the "GHz" rating system.

    I mean, how fast is a "Pentium 5473" or whatever it is they call them these days?

  • Worst adverts ever! (Score:5, Funny)

    by smallfries (601545) on Saturday September 29 2007, @04:19PM (#20796015) Homepage
    For the love of god slashdot, for once be brave and do NOT under any circumstances RTFA. It never stops loading! There are cycling video ads in strips own the side and it uses that horrific ad-word shit. It was like a view into hell itself...
    • You so need adblock and noscript. To me, it looks like any other web page - no flashing, no movement, no ads, no weirdo-underlined words. There is a little extra white-space near the top, probably for a banner-ad that didn't collapse completely.

      I can even click the thumbnail of the chart to get the full-size image without any problem - which is usually what fails, if anything is going to fail, when running with noscript.
  • I have been a hands-on techie since the days of the 386. That means I am overdue for a severe case of Alzheimer's and a possible touch of Delusional Managementitis. After those two factors, Intel's stupid naming schemes are confusing enough that I don't bother trying to remember the differences between their processor families. It's definitely easier to buy AMD. But I know I would spend the extra time to work out the differences if I wanted to build a new box. That can't be what Intel's marketing peopl

  • [vV].+ (Score:3, Insightful)

    by paul248 (536459) on Saturday September 29 2007, @04:26PM (#20796069) Homepage
    Well, it's not like anybody ever knew what vPro and VIIV were for in the first place.
  • A general re-branding for the core families of the chip is fine, but it would be better if they re-vamped the model numbers. How it should work (in my own, special, little world) is a general brand name that lets you know what type of ship you are dealing with in general. Then a 6-8 digit model number. It should be easy enough to figure out a naming convention that would give the number of cores, clock speed, and cache. When I am trying to figure out which chip I want to by from them, it would be great

  • Hang on a second. (Score:3, Informative)

    by His name cannot be s (16831) on Saturday September 29 2007, @04:37PM (#20796155) Journal
    ... this did *not* clear anything up.

    Actually... I'm more confused. Shit.

    I thought that centrino, viiv and vpro were all just marketdroid-speak for "ooooh! Now with Ridges!" and "Not Just White! Really Bright!"

    I'm going to assume that nothing happened. we'll see how I fare then.

  • Anonymous source? Just heard?

    This is not only old news, but it came direct from a quoted, named, Intel representative! C|Net story from July 20th [news.com]

  • Get back to model numbers... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by B5_geek (638928) on Saturday September 29 2007, @04:52PM (#20796235)
    I know why they stopped doing it, but I wish these CPU * Video card companies would use actual model numbers ala 386SX/386DX, 486DX/486Dlc etc...

    I also know that lead to ridiculous over use that we currently see in video cards 9800XX-Max-Super-X.

    It might actually bring back some truth to the consumer.
    686-Mobile/2.2GHz vs 686/3GHz vs 4c868/1.8Ghz

    • Oh no it won't... Look what AMD did...

      Our model #s will now reflect our new analysis methodology which we feel better reflects the speed of our processors. Thusly, the AMD 25000K is equal to (using our illudium pu 32 ESK rating) a P5-686/22/44SX processor. Whereas the AMD 37000Q is equal to a P5-686/22/33DX processor.

      There... see this eliminates all customer confusion as well as puts our processors in a more comparable light!

    • It might actually bring back some truth to the consumer.
      686-Mobile/2.2GHz vs 686/3GHz vs 4c868/1.8Ghz

      No, what it'll do is bring-back the MHz myth, in full-force.

      Gee, Intel has this 4Ghz CPU, and AMD has this 3GHz CPU for a bit less, and VIA has this 2.5GHz CPU for half the price...

      Buy VIA CPU... Go home and spend the next two years wondering why the hell your computer is ridiculously slow, and pondering the meaning of MHz myth.

      IMHO, AMD is the only one making even the slightest attempt at an honest rating.

  • One core 2 core 3 core 4, we're always gonna want a little Moore!

    Give us names that tells what's what, or we'll switch to AMD and they'll kick your butt!

    Stop marketing and give is a way to know cores/speed/cache/socket/architecture.

  • Two steps...

    1. Use model #s for the cpus... e.g. 6600AT or someshit

    2. Put a ref chart with relevant deets on a website [*]

    3. Profit.

    I lied there are three steps.

    [*] deets like clock rate, fsb speed, TDP, cache per core, shared cache, cache latency/ways/ports, instruction set features [e.g. SSE, MMX, etc], pin-count, voltage, heat tolerance

    Instead of calling it the "Centrino Duo Laptop" you can say "it's the Centrino 6600JZX" then a smart user can just look up 6600JZX on their website and know what the fu

  • Translation: (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dpbsmith (263124) on Saturday September 29 2007, @05:40PM (#20796583) Homepage
    A new manager has just arrived. He found the old product name confusing.

    Unfortunately, they're confusing for a good reason: the product line is complex.

    So, he'll impose a new set of names on it. He will think the new names are less confusing, because they make sense to him. And he says it will make things less confusing for customers, because he projects his own feeling onto his customers. And perhaps the new names really are a little less confusing.

    But in reality it will make things more confusing, because of the name change.

    The people who actually did understand the old names will be confused by the new ones, and the people who learn the new ones will be confused whenever they have to deal with legacy memos or documentation that uses the old ones, and everyone who is deeply involved in the products will have to carry around with a little wallet-sized conversion table around them with both sets of names on them.

    Meanwhile, the average customer won't be aware of anything other than the processor brand (Intel) and the clock rate.

    • Intel's marketing drones are crazy (Score:5, Interesting)

      by PCM2 (4486) on Saturday September 29 2007, @09:42PM (#20798169) Homepage
      In the 1990s I worked for a packaging design firm that had Intel as a client. The company's assignment was to design packaging and in-store displays for the latest Intel processor, the Pentium II, now with MMX. So Intel shipped us all the latest logos associated with the chip.

      I don't know if you remember that logo, but it looked pretty much like this. [channeladvisor.com] Blue Intel logo, purple and black Pentium II logo down below, and an ugly little purple-red-yellow rainbow gradient thing in the corner that said "MMX."

      So the designers did their designs, they conferred with Intel, final designs were agreed upon, and the designers delivered their comps to Intel. Somebody gets a call:

      Intel: We're looking at the final designs and everything seems in order. Except the logo seems all messed up.

      (Our designers didn't do anything to the logo, so far as we knew, so this was a little surprising.) Us: What's wrong?

      Intel: Well, this doesn't really look like Pentium Purple, and this logo definitely is not Intel Blue.

      Us: Ah. Well... yes, I see what you mean. Not to worry. This is pretty normal when dealing with four-color process. We'll have one of our production people on-site at the printer's to make sure it matches your sample as closely as possible.

      Intel: As closely as possible doesn't cut it. I need this to be Intel Blue and this absolutely must be Pentium Purple. And now that you mention it, the rainbow gradient doesn't really look like it goes from Intel Red to Intel Purple to Intel Yellow, either. Did you get our Pantone swatches?

      Us: Well, yes. But since this is a four-color job, you realize that you can't really get all those colors into the job. They don't all fit into the four-color gamut. We assumed that you wanted the closest approximation for each (and I think they match pretty well, but we can do better).

      Intel: Not acceptable. We NEED this to be Intel Blue. This MUST be Pentium Purple.

      Us: The only way to do that is to use custom spot colors. We'd have to run an additional pass through the printer for each color.

      Intel: Then that's what you have to do.

      Us: OK, so just to confirm. For every single piece of advertising we produce for you -- every box, every poster, every five-foot-high cardboard cutout, every display -- in addition to the four-color process for all the photographs and box art, you want us to run four additional spot colors. And you're willing to incur the additional charges that this entails. And this is just to print the Intel Pentium II logo, which on this box I have here is exactly 1.2cm tall on the lower righthand corner of the box.

      Intel: That is correct. Spare no expense.

      The lesson learned: Don't expect rational decisionmaking from the internal marketing department of a behemoth corporation.

    • He will think the new names are less confusing, because they make sense to him. And he says it will make things less confusing for customers, because he projects his own feeling onto his customers. And perhaps the new names really are a little less confusing. But in reality it will make things more confusing, because of the name change.

      And we'll all have to read posts like yours, which make things more confusing...
  • I heard this on the CNET podcast Buzz Out Loud a few weeks ago...

  • Since that makes it soooooo much more obvious Intel... good one.

    Seriously, have no idea the difference between Centrino and Centrino with vPro whatever. Why do you actually give one a completely different name?

  • Probably an admission that viiv and vpro haven't been anywhere near the success that Centrino was.
  • Make it cheaper and stop being assholes with the ever changing slot design. And hey here's an idea, make a chip that runs somewhere south of the temperature of the sun.
  • From what I remember, there was at one point a "Mobile Athlon" that was like a desktop athlon, but designed for better power efficiency, etc.

    What really isn't clear here is, they've taken the Core 2 Duo out of a desktop, made a version for laptops, but they now just call it Centrino, or maybe Centrino Duo. Which is confusing as hell -- when my new job gave me a laptop, it had a "Centrino Duo", and I had to go online to check if it could run a 64-bit OS -- because the main difference between "Core Duo" and "
  • As resident IT guy for kith and kin, I get asked about this all the time. And frankly, unless I happened to have payed attention recently, I can't really give a straight answer. I have a job, a girlfriend, a cat, and other stuff to do. Intel had it easy with the Pentiums, higher numbers (Roman numerals and price) were better. Now, as has been correctly pointed out here, it's more complex. They really need to return to the simpler format for regular PC buyers. Something like MyIntel 1,2,3,etc... to mar
  • I don't think there is any way to make processor naming and branding less confusing to the average consumer because the average consumer mostly doesn't care. The terms mobile, dual core, hyperthreaded etc, etc mean nothing. All they want to know is if it's "fast (enough)".

    Meanwhile rebranding does litlle for tech heads like us because what you call a processor isn't as important as what it does. We already know what we're looking for in a processor. We understand what kind of processor suits our needs and l

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