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Intel confirms chip-naming change
Rupert Goodwins
March 19, 2004, 18:15 GMT

Intel hopes that a new naming scheme will wean buyers off clock-speed addiction

Intel has confirmed to ZDNet UK the truth of rumours that it is dropping speeds from future processor names. Instead, new chips will be christened with a model number, in a similar scheme long adopted by car makers. "Rather than have people concentrate on the gigahertz, we want people to look at the features that make up a particular processor," an Intel spokesman told ZDNet UK.

The new naming scheme will replace the speed with a three-digit number, starting with 3 for low-end chips, 5 for standard performance and 7 for the top of the range models. As now, mobile and desktop processors will be run as two separate brands, and existing brand names will be retained.

Celeron will now be known as Celeron D (for Desktop) or Celeron M (for Mobile), and the Pentium 4, M and 4M will also survive. Thus, the next desktop Celeron will be called something like Celeron D 300 while Dothan, the next upgrade to the Pentium M, will be the Pentium M 700, for example. Different combinations of speed, cache, front side bus and other technologies will be indicated by different numbers in the series.

"The intention is to increase the numbers with the feature count of a processor, not necessarily the performance," said Intel's spokesperson. "You won't be able to compare numbers directly. It will be easier to differentiate products within a family."

Dothan will be the first product to wear the new scheme when it is launched in May 2004, followed by the next revision of the Pentium 4 later in the second quarter. There'll be no 7 model Pentium 4 -- the Extreme Edition end of the market -- until Q4 of this year. Existing chips will retain their existing names, and the full product name will continue to include "Hyper-Threading Technology".

Although Intel is upfront about the similarities between the model naming convention and that long used in the automotive industry, it is keen to discourage people from using the word 'series' after the number.
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LINKIE

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Lasereth

Great! Maybe now the CPU market can be as confusing as the videocard market!

-Lasereth

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R3d

well put things just keep getting more and more confusing.. lovely..

Redjake

maybe if I can get a high paying job I can finally afford a P4 7 series

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aarchaon

I think this is pretty dumb, people rely on the name so they can know what speed the chip is without researching it. Maybe Intel are feeling a little bit threatened by AMD?

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teseniarkc

Thank god I only by AMD. It is just like their "hyperthreading" scheme. They make it sound like two processors but it only works with certain software.

Redjake

Whoa calm down hoss. You are making AMD lovers look biased While I am a huge AMD fan, I am not afraid to admit Intel can still kick ass and take names. Their Hyper-Threading Technology is not just some "scheme." It can blow your socks off While true it only works the best with some programs, an increasing number of games and programs are utilizing the technology.

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propaganda

I read this before ealier this week. The article brought up a good point which was now AMD has to most likely change the way they name processors as well.

On a side note, people who don't know how to read these things are going to be screwed. I think the way Lasereth put it was perfectly said.

VF19

Ah, another reason not to buy Intel.

JohnnyRoyale

and then, you can plug it into that easy-to understand motherboard!

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bltzkriegmcanon

The 7 Series, I like that. It makes Intel sound like its a higher class of processor. Not necessarily better by any means, but just higher class. Like a BMW 7 series.

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Hanabal

omg dont you realise amd have been doning this for a while.

im reading everybodys posts saying," thank god i buy amd",

ok, but how is this different to what amd are doing
an athon 2500+ goes nowhere near 2500Mhz.

and i know fully how it works, so dont bother explaining, im just saying that they did it first.

also the chips have become so advanced with stuff like HT and on chip memory management et al, that the clock speed does not determine the best chip, who here will buy a 1.6G celeron over a 900M P4,

didnt think so.

if anything, this will make it more clear. now everybody can tell whats good.

everyday i see an ad for a computer with, massive 2Ghz power, enough for the most demanding applications, then i see its a celeron. Most average people dont know that celeron or duron = suck. this will solve that problem

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bodypainter

And in a couple years (or less), a new low-end "3" model will be a better performer than the original "7" model. That'll be fun!

ChrisJericho

Ugh. Retarded. Intel has stooped to AMD levels.

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Destrox

AMD only did that to please the generally retarded public since th ey felt MHZ was all there was to life in computers.

Intel is just letting others know since they now have many variations of very similar clock speed cpu's.

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Lasereth

I think the reason Intel is getting flak for this is the fact that their processors were named perfectly fine. Why change the naming scheme? This is simply going to confuse consumers. AMD had to change their naming scheme to keep up with Intel's speed war. Yes, AMD does have a confusing name scheme, but we're not faulting Intel for that -- we're faulting them for moving to a confusing naming scheme when they had one that works perfectly fine.

I don't really fault Intel at all for changing the names of their processors, I simply stated that it's about to get way more confusing. Oh well, that gives me another reason to read up on hardware reviews all day long!

-Lasereth

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kutulu

So true, so very true. Oh well, most people don't give a fuck. They go to the computer store and say they need a good computer that isn't top of the line and trust the salesman (who doesn't know shit either) to pick one out for them. They but an Intel because everyone else does.

Nothing against Intel, they make great processors, they just cost twice as much for the performance you can get from a comprable AMD.

This also screws AMD over a little bit. They had a nice nomenclature that allowed you to easily tell which Intel chip it matched up with. Not any more...

guthmund

For some reason this just jumped out at me.

Also, for some reason, my brain translated this to mean:

"We want you to be ignorant when choosing our product. Chances are our confusing scheme will prevent you from making an informed decision. Unfortunately, you might decipher our doubletalk and get lucky when purchasing a new processor. Fortunately, you probably will already have purchased one already making the second purchase that much more sweet on our end."

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MadHatder

Hyperthreading doesn't require special software like 64 bit applications do. HT processors can do multiple tasks at once instead of doing tasks linearly, hence speeding up the system a great deal.

Although the processors themselves don't run at 2.5 gig, they run at about the same speed as a Pentium 4 2.5 ghz. It's saying it has the same speed without stealing Intel's marketing.

kutulu

I think that is the key to the name change by Intel. They probably got sick of AMD customers having such an easy way to compare products. Their bet is that instead of doing the research, the casual computer user will just go with the big name. Seems like a good bet to me.

bltzkriegmcanon

The casual computer user isn't going to know the fucking difference. I know, because I sold computers to the casual user, and trust me, they don't know shit about computers, much less what type of processor is contained in said computer. To the casual user, the type of processor doesn't matter at all.

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The password is "Who are the Patriots?" and "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo." "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo." Gotcha.
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bacon_masta

that upsets me greatly. the only thing i really care about in a processor is the gigahertz, the size of the cache, and the number of registers it has. so, why the block? is the technology gotten so small they can't pack more into a chip, or what?

Hanabal

you have to research for the number of regesters now dont you.

if you want that much info, its not presented up front, you have to find it.

so now you have to find the clock speed, whop de doo.

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MadHatder

Because judging by the title Pentium 4 2.7 GHZ, you know exactly how many registers it has and the size cache right? That's a terrible argument, to know any of that stuff you would have to check product info, which you will have to do to find the GHZ now, so why does the name change matter?

Hanabal

and i think its good, if they do it right.

the P4EE is a good chip, as is the P4E, but not the P4A, and the P4C is ok. but they all come in 2.8Ghz mode,

i think thats confusing enough for consumers.

i had a hard enough time trying to convince my parents that a Pentium M is better than a pentium 4M.

now they can say, hmm i want a good but not great computer = 5xx. or i want the best = 7xx.

also if they do it right, you can say a 71x might have 512k cache while a 72x has 1M cache. and 7x1 has 533Mhz FSB while 7x2 has 800Mhz FSB, if they do it like that, the info the hardcore fans want is in the name, they dont have to hunt for it. and the consumers just know that the higher number = more performance.

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Hanabal

well for your info, the AMD name comparison was good up to the 2.8G point. ie 2800+ is not quite as good as 2.8G P4 and it gets considerably worse after that. with 64 Bit screwing the comparison up completely if you go that far.

so trying to fool the consumer into comparing like that was dangerous and misleading. the companies should make an effort into educating the consumers on the many facets of CPU's such as cache size, FSB etc. with intel putting a code for that info in the name, its at least there. and if they do it right, ie educate the consumer. everybody will be better off

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Silverbrain

Consumers eyes looking at an AMD64 3400+ or an Intel 7xx series, lets just say 715.

3400 > 715. The Intel marketing machine is gonna need a bigger budget =)

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kutulu

Although I own an AMD, I don't think Intel needs to worry about that. Hell, I've never even seen a commercial for an AMD.

Silverbrain

I see a fair share of print ads for AMD. Im just thinking of the 6dollar an hour employee at best buy trying to explain why 715 is better then 3400...having to try and explain the facets that make up speed, FSB, cache, HT, integrated memory controller etc.

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bltzkriegmcanon

Right, and no employee of best buy or any other computer superstore will ever have to explain that because no store-bought computer owner i've ever dealt with knew shit about what any of the numbers meant. All someone at best buy would have to tell them is more is bettar, and start comparing other features that they get with the shitty shitty HP they'll be purchasing this afternoon instead of the "oh-so-much-better" Sony with all the graphics and the internet and the games. "Normal" consumers don't care anything about Intel's marketing, so they're not gonna be able to note the difference until the price comes into play. That's when the "normal" consumer's gonna notice the difference.

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What do you say to one last showdown?
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- The Colonel and Snake, Metal Gear Solid 3

kutulu

I actually went to best buy to look at a few things and he re-directed me to newegg. I thought that was pretty funny.

Silverbrain

At least someone at that best buy knew something )

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bltzkriegmcanon

Ain't that the truth.

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What do you say to one last showdown?
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The password is "Who are the Patriots?" and "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo." "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo." Gotcha.
- The Colonel and Snake, Metal Gear Solid 3

MadHatder

Um, AMD > Intel in that department buddy.

propaganda

Eh I was reading an article on tomshardware.com and it seems like they have already made the change over to the new naming of Intel processors

http://www20.tomshardware.com/cpu/20...escott-03.html

Its weird though I thought Intel was going to leave the names like 3.0GHz as they are now.

MSD

Advertising the processor speed is like puttin gbadges on a car with the displacement of the engine on them. Sure, I'll miss it, but it's not everything.

Homey_V

It makes sense from Intel's point of view.
The average consumer doesnt want to research what makes a processor "fast", they just want it without having to look into it.

Thus Intel makes AMD's naming scheme obsolete and makes one that is consumer friendly.

IE.
Clerk: "Yes sir, this Intel P4 7xx series is very fast. Much faster than anything else on the market."
Consumer: "Mmmm 7 is fast-like"

The average person wont know what the numbers after the series number means, but the salesperson can use this to make the processor sounds more 'impressive'... WHereas, the XP2500+.. Yah thats pretty much it. Thats its speed rating.. Nothing fancy.

Prince

I've never bought AMD. I've never even entertained the thought. I've never been dissatisfied with an Intel processor, or had problems with one. I don't see this changing a damn thing in my life.

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Hanabal

i can only see goodness out of it.

think of this situation

person: so whats different between the 710 and the 720.
Salesperson: well one has <insert whatever here> and the other has a better <insert whatever here>

now if the salesperson knows what it means, they can educate the consumer, if the sales person doesnt, its not intels fault and they would have been worse with just a clock speed

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Lock~Down

Glad they decided to do something with their naming system. The current way has P4 3.2ghz processors that have 3 diffrent varaitions to it.

Now we can easily tell what is what. Although it will be a pain when they decide to have a 730 less powerful than a 720.