August 10th, 2008
Nehalem Gets Named
By Michael Santo
Editor-in-Chief, RealTechNews
On Sunday Intel announced that its upcoming Nehalem processor family will carry the “Intel Core” name, with the first in the series carrying an “i7″ identifier. The “i7″ CPUs are scheduled to launch in Q4. Other, later identifiers will “complement” the “i7″ indentifier.
In the press release, Sean Maloney, Intel Corporation executive vice president and general manager, Sales and Marketing Group, said:
“The Core name is and will be our flagship PC processor brand going forward. Expect Intel to focus even more marketing resources around that name and the Core i7 products starting now.”
Intel is trying to simplify branding. In the past “it’s been Core Duo, Core Solo. Basically, we’re going to simplify Nehalem down to just Core,” said George Alfs, an Intel spokesperson.
Of course, that doesn’t explain what the “i7″ represents, and curious folk like myself are of course wondering.
The logo is shown above, but as shown to the left, there will be a separate black logo for the highest-end offering, the Extreme Edition.
Nehalem will be manufactured using Intel’s 45-nanometer process, and will be Intel’s first CPU to put all four cores on one piece of silicon, something that AMD already achieved with its Phenom and Opteron processors. It will be the focus of the upcoming Intel Developer Forum conference in San Francisco, which runs Aug. 19th - 21st.
LZW says:
I think Pentium fans are going to flip out and go crazy… I was never a real big fan of the name Pentium but became use to it and this news is making me go crazy!!!
When intel used numerical names, (a common practice of the semiconductor industry) we all waited for the 586 chip but we got the Pentium instead! (the whatium? …was my reaction.)
Many people patiently waited for the Hexium in the years to follow, only to be offered a myriad of next generation Pentiums. Now to add insult to injury, to poor salt on the wound… (add more metaphors) They give us Core i7! (I’m sure people will soon shorten that to “Cory 7″)
Lets look at what was and what could have been…
4004 (calculator chip)
8088 & 8086 (086?)
186 (never made it as a desktop cpu)
286
386sx
386dx
486sx
486dx
486dx2
586 (renamed Pentium)
686 (still a Pentium
786 (renamed Core ie7)
Nullium (086)
Unium (186)
Dualium (286)
Trium (386)
Quadrium (486)
Pentium (actually existed)
Hexium (686)
Heptium (Core i7)
Octium (a futuristic 886?)
August 11th, 2008 at 10:19 am
Alice says:
Here’s a bit of history. I got called by my PR riend at Intel before the Wall Street Journal to learn the new name of the Pentium. This was pre-blog so what was I going to do in 20 minutes lead time. But that was nice of her.
Anyway - Intel moved to names because it could not trademark a number like 486 or 586 and even adding letters like i486 was not valid if challenged. Interesting to go back down that road.
Is that because AMD is hurting or because the real name is Core XXX and not iXXX
August 11th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Softwaremandi says:
Processing is improving everyday. But user is at loss in this cat and rat race as his wish list keeps on expanding and companies like Intel never let it stop and fulfilled.
August 11th, 2008 at 10:59 pm