Intel Going With “Core i7” Name?

MrMike said:
How is Core 2 redundant or confusing?

There were Core 2 Solo and Duo processors. Now there are Core 2 Solo, Duo, and Quad processors.
Click to expand...

My biggest gripe about the name is that when I was selling computers I talked to people all the time that were convinced Core2 was the same thing as dual-core. A few actually got mad at me when they said they wanted a dual-core system and I showed them Athlon X2's, Turion X2's and Pentium dual-cores (not Pentium D's, those ran too hot and performed too poorly to sell in good conscience).

It was most likely a calculated move by Intel's marketing department, though.
 
colinstu said:
I'm not sure why people are confused...

Core Solo and Core Duo were Intel's first chips after Pentium M and Pentium D.

They soon after released Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad. Because this was the second iteration of the Core architecture. Solo / Duo / Quad simply identies the number of cores, the "2" only means this is the second version of Intel's "Core".

Just like with pentiums... Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium !!!, Pentium 4, when they moved to two cores : Pentium D... Core > Core 2 is to differentiate the new version of core.
Click to expand...

It's very easy for us but trust me, it's confusing for a lot of people. Try explaining all that to someone who knows nothing about computers.

Intel marketed the Pentium 4 and clockspeed so heavily that people thought I was trying to cheat them with "slow" ~2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo based systems. That made it even tougher to explain.
 
mynamehere said:
Duly noted, just figured that with the recent rash of odd activities from Apple and their (perhaps perceived) protectiveness of all things "i", that they might try something.
Click to expand...

Even if they did try something, they would fail immediately, since Intel began using the branding a good 20 years before Apple. It would be a clear case of prior art, which is why they'd have to be stupid to consider it.
 
i7 is easy....

I think this means "intel 7th generation"

think about it... pentium 4, pentium d, core 2, nehalem ( the history of said body of water was told to me by an intel employee at RoGCon... you are full of fail and limp for not being there)
 
The only problem is that this isn't the 7th generation.

That was NetBurst/Pentium 4.

And that's only if you're counting generations from 8086/8088. (Which were both derivatives of the 8008.)

So, let's count:
Generation 1: 8086, 8088, 80186, 80188
Generation 2: 80286
Generation 3: 80386
Generation 4: i486
Generation 5: Pentium (code name 'P5',) Pentium MMX
Generation 6: Pentium Pro (code name 'P6',) Pentium II, Pentium III, and their derived Celerons and Xeons.
Generation 7: Pentium 4, Pentium D, (and their Extremes) and their Celeron and Xeon derivatives.

So even if you call Pentium M, Core Duo, and the Core 2 line all as being part of the Pentium Pro line (which they aren't,) we're at Generation 8. If you properly call Pentium M and Core Duo as a generation of their own, and Core 2 as a generation of its own, then we're up to Generation 10.

Also, back before Itanium's launch, Intel officially considered it to be the 'next generation architecture', so in all fairness, the 'seventh generation' of processor. But, just because it's outside the x86 line (its market failure not even coming into play,) I'm willing to leave it off this generation list.
 
I think aikjo2 meant:

Pentium 4 = 4th gen
Pentium D = 5th
Core 2 = 6th
Nehalem/i7 = 7th gen.
 
Oh, and if you read the press release carefully, it would appear that "Core Processor" is the official name, as "Core 2 Duo" or "Core 2 Quad" are now.

The "i7" bit appears to be part of the product number, much as "QX9775" or "E6600" are now. My guess (no inside sources,) is that it that "i7" is the initial numbering line. So we'll see "i750" or "i795" (or maybe even four numbers, "i7500", "i7950",) as the individual product differentiation. And when lower-end parts launch, we'll see those as the "i5" "i3", etc.

So where now we have the 9000-series, 6000-series, and 4000-series, we'll see "i7", "i5", "i3"...

So to break it up:
Code: 
Brand        --     Model
Core 2 Duo          E6700
Core 2 Quad         Q9450
Core 2 Extreme      QX9775
Core                i750

Where Intel legal's required branding would be:
Intel(R) Core(R) Processor i750
as compared to:
Intel(R) Core(R)2 Duo Processor E6700

They're not replacing the 2 with "i7", they're dropping the "2 Duo", "2 Quad", "2 Extreme" altogether.
 
Here we go... (I need an 'edit' button.)

There is an Intel blog post on it:
The “i7” identifier is the first of several new identifiers to come as different Nehalem-based products launch over the next year.
Click to expand...
 
Just to correct folks above, who are very wrong, going only from i386..

386 = i386
486 = i486
Pentium = i586 - this is when it was ruled Intel couldn't copyright numbers.
Pentium Pro, Pentium II = i686

Later generations do not use an ix86 nomenclature, but the i686 is generally accepted, as all modern processors derive largely from the Pentium Pro. Again; Pentium 4/NotBurst technology was scrapped in it's entirety, and returned to Pentium III - which was a major pII update - baseline. This gave birth to Pentium M, which gave birth to Core, and so on.
 
Menelmarar said:
Guess it's official now!
http://www.hardocp.com/news.html?news=MzQyMjksLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdCwsLDE=

Will be interesting to see what plans their marketting group has for this naming scheme.
Click to expand...

I guess it makes sense. The new scheme eliminates the weird 2 Duo thing. They could do something like:
Core i7 Duo/Quad
Core i8 Whatever

I don't understand why they moved away from the Pentium naming scheme. Everybody had heard of the Pentium 4 brand. I'm sure intel spent a fortune on marketing to keep the average consumer from noticing that they were getting owned by AMD performance wise back then.

It would be so much simpler to have a Pentium 5 X.XX GHz.

Now that Pentium represents the castrated lower-cost Core 2 chips their line-up is even more weird.
 
jonneymendoza said:
are all nehalems native quad core cpu's?
Click to expand...

Bloomfields are, and that's what is coming out in (probably) September. Q3 next year, Lynnfield is coming out, which is also a native quad core, and Havendale, which is native dual core with on-die integrated graphics.

Then the fun really begins in 2010 when Intel releases the die-shrink, Westmere, with six cores. :D

At least Bloomfield and Westmere, but possibly Lynnfield and Havendale too (nobody knows yet) will see the return of HyperThreading, so the number of cores the OS sees will be double the amount of physical cores. It will be interesting to see how much that really helps consumer apps and games, though I'm sure servers will find it useful.
 
Derangel said:
I get how they're ordered, just the names themselves. Core 2 Quad makes no logical sense. In a logical world Core 2 would mean 2 cores or "Duo" cores. Hence why C2D is redundant. Core 2 is the product name, yes, but that doesn't mean its in the least bit logical.
Click to expand...
Disagreed, people think the 'Core' references the amount of physical cores...when you think about it as a reference to an architecture and not physical cores, it makes sense just fine.
 
Well, it will just be "Core" now...each processor will have its own designation like i7 and so on. Maybe they'll make it easy on the general public and say i8 is obviously faster than i7 but slower than i9. :D

A post we pulled from Intel's Blog:

i7 does not have any special meaning per se (after all Nehalem is 4 cores and 8 threads!). So think of i7 as somewhat of a generic identifier for now (there will be other identifiers to come that will make it more clear). It is a way separating the new and improved high end desktop processor brand from other existing brands. It represents a collection of factors and highlights unique attributes of the particular product in the family of processors, including performance and other features.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top