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Understanding Intel’s brand name shuffle
Robert Hallock
June 18, 2009 2:38 PM ET in Tech
Update 31 July, 2009: In the time since Intel announced its new branding initiative, the firm has wizened and kicked the impending 32nm Gulftown under the “Core i9″ banner. While the rest of their branding scheme remains inane as ever, it’s nice to see some clarity bubbling to the surface.
Original story follows:
Yesterday Intel Corp. announced a sweeping change to their branding which is every bit as confusing for the consumer as the branding it replaced.
The world’s largest CPU company announced the changes as a major pillar in a sweeping strategy allegedly designed to simplify branding for customers. Intel spokesman Bill Calder wrote that the Core branding currently suffered from an identity crisis at multiple levels.
“Today the Intel Core brand has a mind boggling array of derivatives (such as CoreTM2 Duo and Core 2 Quad, etc),” he said. “Over time those will go away and in its place will be a simplified family of Core processors spanning multiple levels.”
Intel’s new strategy is hinged on permutations of the “Core i7″ branding unveiled with the introduction of the firm’s new Nehalem family of architecture. Here’s how it works:
Core i7
The banner under which Intel’s “premiere” chips will fly. Cores expected to bear this name include:
Bloomfield (Current Core i7, 45nm, 4C/8T, LGA1366, desktop part)
Lynnfield (2H09 product, 45nm, 4C/8T, LGA1156, desktop part)
Gulftown (4Q09 product, 32nm, 6C/12T, LGA1366, desktop part)
Clarksfield (2H09 product, 45nm, 4C/8T, mPGA989, mobile part)
Something is rotten in Santa Clara. Why is the “enthusiast” line of Core i7s being tainted by mainstream/budget LGA1156 chips? Why will the upcoming 32nm 6-core Gulftown have to share namespace with the cut-rate Lynnfield chip being prepared for the sticker shocked?
Core i5
Intel’s so-called “mainstream” segment. These chips will be targeted at cost-conscious users, so they’re like a super Celeron! Honest, guv! Cores expected to bear this name include:
Lynnfield (2H09 product, 45nm, 4C/4T, LGA1156, desktop part)
Clarkdale (2H09 product, 32nm, 2C/4T, LGA1156, desktop part)
Arrandale (1H10 product, 32nm, 2C/4T, mPGA989, mobile part)
The gettin’ is good here, too. Not only has Intel steeped their processors in a bucket of confusion by offering the Lynnfield under two separate brandings, it further muddies the water by chucking a dumpy CPU+GPU processors with 2 cores and on-die Intel GMA into the mix (Clarkdale). At least Arrandale will be receiving only one brandi– wait, no it won’t. Enter…
Core i3
The worst of the best (or some marketing doublespeak like that), the Core i3 moniker is the dumping ground for sundry untouchable GPU-on-CPU chips. They’re practically Celerons, except they’re not because Intel intends to keep that branding too. Cores for this line include:
Clarkdale (2H09 product, 32nm, 2C/4T, LGA1156, desktop part)
Arrandale (1H10 product, 32nm, 2C/4T, mPGA989, mobile part)
The firm brushes off all the confusion by noting that they’re not brands, but modifiers.
It is “important to note that these are not brands but modifiers to the Intel Core brand that signal different features and benefits,” Calder said.
“So the key here is there will be a range of features and capabilities within the Intel Core family – our flagship brand representing the highest performance and the latest technology – but simplified into entry-level (Intel Core i3), mid-level (Intel Core i5), and high-level (Intel Core i7),” he continued. “For PC purchasing, think in terms of good-better-best with Celeron being good, Pentium better, and the Intel Core family representing the best we have to offer.”
Just to clarify, Intel is offering Celeron as good, Pentium as better, Core i3 as best, Core i5 as besterer, and Core i7 as bestest across two, or even three desktop sockets at the same time. And here you thought that socket 754/939 coexistence trash was dead. Merry Christmas!
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