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The Meaning Behind Intel Code Names?

Posted by Cliff on from the have-fun-with-it dept.

Scozza asks: "In the name of science and decency, we have been trying to find the meanings of the code names used by Intel for their processors. The only problem is that we can't find links to a couple of names and would really appreciate it if Slashdot could help fill the blanks!"

34 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Next code name... by Exitthree · · Score: 4, Funny

    Denial not just a river in Egypt (based on AMD's latest sales numbers).

  2. Cascades by HughsOnFirst · · Score: 3, Informative

    The mountains from which many of the rivers used as names for Intel chips flow.
    I hear the cascades are made mostly of silicon with some trace impuritys , just like Intel chips

  3. Rivers...rivers... by ForestGrump · · Score: 5, Funny

    With all these chips named after rivers, one has to question:
    Is Intel going downstream?
    Sadly, the latest sales figures seem to indicate so.

    -Grump

    --
    Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
  4. Names... by Rheingold · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Tejas is the Spanish name for Texas. Cascades are our little stretch of mountains here in the Pacific Northwest. Tualatin is also a suburb of Portland, just to the south, part of the Silicon Forest. Tulsa also happens to be a sizable city in Oklahoma.

    --
    Wil
    wiki
    1. Re:Names... by UnknowingFool · · Score: 3, Informative
      Tejas is the Spanish name for Texas.

      Tejas was named by the Spanish after the Tejas Indians.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    2. Re:Names... by Monkelectric · · Score: 2, Informative
      Tejas is the Spanish name for Texas

      It's also a tasty ZZ Top album.

      --

      Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley

    3. Re:Names... by photon317 · · Score: 2, Funny


      And ZZ Top is from Texas, of course.

      --
      11*43+456^2
    4. Re:Names... by fm6 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Tejas is the Spanish name for Texas...
      As every Selena fan knows. And It shouldn't be news that Intel always uses geographic code names.

      This is an object lesson in how urban/web legends are born. Somebody hears about the Tejas Wicca Coven, and says "Aha! That must be where the Intel code name comes from!" So they publish lists like the one this story linked to, which look authoritative, but are just so much BS.

      Actually, I can't imagine any big company using a Wiccan name for anything. Not after the various problems Proctor and Gamele has had with "Satanism".

  5. Alderwood Manor-Bothell North, WA by HughsOnFirst · · Score: 2, Interesting

    North northwest of Kirkland WA
    Famous for being the namesake of the house brand at Costco and the home of Bill Gates.

  6. No google? Atlas? by cft_128 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If ever I saw a need for doing basic research before asking slashdot. I don't want to sound that snotty, but not knowing Cascades but having the Willamete and Kalamath rivers? As someone else pointed out the Cascades feed them; any casual glance at a map would have revealed that.

    --

    Underloved Movies and Pub Quiz: donotquestionme.org

  7. Suggestions... by complete+loony · · Score: 5, Informative
    Banias:
    "The term [Banias] is widely used to identify members of the traditional mercantile or business castes of India... "

    Alderwood:
    "Browse real estate and homes for sale by area! Washington State Snohomish County Lynnwood Alderwood"

    Caswell County

    Cascades?

    --
    09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
  8. Additions... by zamboni1138 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Intel has a lot of bases around Oregon, allow me to help out a little:

    • Alderwood is the name of a street in Portland, if you've ever had to go the FedEx location at the airport, you've been on Alderwood and Cornfoot.

    • Foster is also a street in Portland. The topless bar at 92nd and Foster is quite the hole.

    • Tualain is also a burb of Portland, on the west side, which is where all of the Intel locations are. Large numbers of Intelers probably reside here.

    • Yamhill is also a county in Oregon, very near where most of the Intel locations are (I think all are in Washington county). Lots of wine grapes are made in Yamhill.

    • Prescott is also a street in Portland.

    • Cascades is of course a reference to the cascade range of rock piles, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and the Three Sisters being a few of the bigger name mounts in the range.

    1. Re:Additions... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
      Foster is also a street in Portland. The topless bar at 92nd and Foster is quite the hole.

      If I made chips, I'd name them all after nudie bars in New York.

      Goldfinger: The high end enterprise chips like Xeons.

      Vixen: Top of the line consumer chips like the P4.

      Foxes: The older formerly high end chips for desktops.

      Candlewoods: The low end consumer chips like Celerons.

      Port'O Call: The bottom of the line old crusty rejects like the first Pentiums (66 - 75 Mhz).

    2. Re:Additions... by Rheingold · · Score: 2, Interesting

      92nd Street Dancers! Not as bad as the Boom Boom Room (East or West), but nothing to bother visiting... I happen to live about 30 blocks west on Foster.



      And most of the Intel places I know of are in Hillsboro, not Tualatin, although there are a number of high-tech places there, some of which are my customers...

      --
      Wil
      wiki
  9. Alderwood by hdparm · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Definitelly this one.

    That's what engineers used to stay up all night.

  10. Katmocino by Konster · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Katmicino was taken from a famous song by Cat Stevens. It's also a small town(the name in the song)just South of Katmandu. I visited Intel in the early 90's and they has this song playing in the elevators and lobby.

    I sit beside the dark
    Beneath the mire
    Cold grey dusty day
    The morning lake
    Drinks up the sky

    Katmocino I'll soon be seeing you
    And your strange bewildering time
    Will hold me down

    Chop me some broken wood
    We'll start a fire
    White warm light the dawn
    And help me see
    Old satan's tree

    Katmocino I'll soon be touching you
    And your strange bewildering time
    Will hold me down

    Pass me my hat and coat
    Lock up the cabin
    Slow night treat me right
    Until I go
    Be nice to know

    Katmocino I'll soon be seeing you
    And your strange bewildering time
    Will keep me home

  11. Keeping with the body of water theme... by TechnoPops · · Score: 2, Informative

    After some quick Googling, Alderwood seems to be a lake in Wisconsin, and Caswell a lake in Mississippi.

    --
    "Each time you smile, it'll only last awhile. Life may be scary, but it's only temporary."
  12. Intel's name list by ubiquitin · · Score: 2, Redundant

    Banias - place in Syria where Jesus traveled with his disciples to examine their understanding of who he was.
    Dothan - town in Alabama, USA or A place to the North of Shechem whither Jacob's sons went for pasture for the flocks
    Grantsdale - town in Massachusetts, USA
    Alderwood - dunno?
    Caswell - dunno?
    Tejas - eclectic ecofeminist Witchcraft community
    Merced- river in California, USA
    Klamath - river in Oregon, USA
    Willamette - river in Oregon, USA
    Coppermine - river in Canada
    Katmai - Alaskan river
    Deschutes - river in Oregon, USA
    Deerfield - river in Massachusetts, USA
    Foster - river in Saskatchewan, Canada
    Northwood - city in Ohio, USA?
    Tualatin - river in Oregon, USA
    Gallatin - river in Montana, USA
    McKinley - river in Alaska
    Madison - river in Montana, USA
    Potomac - river in Maryland, USA
    Bulverde - city in Texas, USA
    Tulsa - river in Arkansas, USA
    Whitefield - industrial township on the edge of Bangalore, India
    Yamhill - river in Oregon, USA
    Tukwila - city in Washington, USA
    Lindenhurst - town in New York , USA
    Prescott - town in Wisconsin, USA
    Springdale - city in Utah, USA
    Jayhawk - a mythical bird?
    Tonga - small Pacific nation
    Tanner - trail in Arizona, USA?
    Dixon - small town in Wyoming, USA
    Cascades - dunno?
    Katmocino - dunno?

    --
    http://tinyurl.com/4ny52
  13. Missing Codenames by GreenHell · · Score: 5, Informative

    This isn't explanations of missing codenames, but rather ones you're missing since I see that you have the Pentium II (Klamath, Deschutes), but not the Celerons from the same era. So, here they are:

    Covington: A city in Kentucky, Washington, Georgia (the US state, not the country), Virginia, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania.
    Mendocino: A city in California

    --
    "I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
  14. It's pretty simple by scheme · · Score: 4, Informative

    Intel picks code names based on geographical locations near the place where the chip is designed. So the chips designed in Oregon have code names taken from places or things in Oregon. Likewise the Pentium-M chips designed in Israel have code names based on locations in Israel.

    --
    "When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it
  15. The Biblical References by drmerope · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The biblical codenames correspond to those chips coming from Intel's Engineering Facility in Israel.

  16. Intel: Marketing challenged. by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 2, Insightful

    To me, the overall meaning is that Intel is not good at marketing.

  17. As a former Intel employee... by Brad+Siemssen · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I can authoritatively state that Intel code names are meaningless.

    All Intel code names are names of some geographical place because geographical locations can not be trademarked. There is no inner meaning, that is by design.

    Intel legal has to approve every code name before it is used, to make sure code names don't match up with someone's trademarked name. Because the code names are used in trade press to talk about upcoming products, they are subject to trademark law. Because Intel makes lots of money, they are subject to legal colonoscopy.

    The official process to name something entails the following actions:

    1. Open up MapQuest
    2. Find some geographical names.
    3. Compile the list of names into an email to Intel legal.
    4. Pray Intel legal picks one of the names you suggested.
    5. Name the project whatever Intel legal tells you in the emailed reply. If you're really lucky it will be one you suggested.
    Cheers!
    1. Re:As a former Intel employee... by CodeMonkey4Hire · · Score: 2, Informative

      This article is exactly like a subthread in a previous Slashdot post.
      Thanks for providing firsthand experience. We don't get enough of that sometimes. (The process was described to me as an intern there, but it sounds like you've actually been involved with it.)

      --

      Let's go Hurricanes!!! 2006 Stanley Cup Champions!!!
    2. Re:As a former Intel employee... by peripatetic_bum · · Score: 4, Funny

      Uhhh, as a current employee of intel, I can tell you we release an unladen african swallow from our offices and where-ever it lands, that's our new codename.

      Yeeshh.

      --

      Sigs are dangerous coy things

    3. Re:As a former Intel employee... by Gunfighter · · Score: 2, Funny

      ...I can tell you we release an unladen african swallow from our offices and where-ever it lands, that's our new codename.

      Why not a European swallow? For that matter, why not a swallow carrying a coconut (perhaps grabbed by the husk?).

      --
      -- Stu

      /. ID under 2,000. I feel old now.
    4. Re:As a former Intel employee... by doughmein_dot_net · · Score: 2, Informative
      As a current Intel employee, I've been in a few groups where the code names weren't named after geographical locations. But these were usually exceptions.


      For one project I worked on, the code name started out as "Cezanne" (after the artist, I would assume) but was renamed to a geographical location mid-way through the development cycle. We engineers never understood why, and most of the team still kept using the old name in server directories, passwords, etc. We thought we were rebels... ah, the joys of youth.


      Another poster has commented that the Pentium(R) M processors had code names from geographic locations in Israel, where most of the design team was located. This also holds true for other projects, where the design teams are based in various nations. It's common to see code names based on a small city (for example, in Ireland) that nobody here had ever heard of, until the project started and the name was explained.


      Other times, the project manager got to choose a "custom" name based on one of his/her favorite places to visit. One project manager named all of his ill-fated projects after small coastal towns along the Pacific Northwest, presumably places he had visited during his frequent (and inconveniently scheduled) vacations.


      I'd also argue that code names do have meaning, at least for the engineers involved with the project. A code name gives a team a rallying point, or a central concept by which we can understand our involvement in the project. Depending on our experiences in that project, whenever we hear or see that name later on in life, we engineers can either feel bursts of pride, or shudders of grief and disgust.


      BTW - Hi Brad! I used to work with you on "Rainier".


      PS - I do not speak for my company.

      --
      Super ninja monkeys will one day rule the world!
  18. Jayhawk by Coos · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I understand that the codenames are supposed to be geographical and local to the site from which the project ran, but wouldn't it be good if "Jayhawk" broke this rule and actually referred to the online cyberpunk/Shadowrun fiction of the same name? ftp://ftp.cs.pdx.edu/pub/frp/stories/jayhawk/

  19. Almost, but not quite... by palironsat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Tejas is the Spanish pronunciation of the Caddo Indian word "Tayshas" (Americanized spelling notwithstanding), which was their word for "friend" - the Caddo tribe was one of the major tribes in the Gulf Coast region during Spanish Imperialism, and were generally on good terms with the Spaniards.

  20. Northwood, by Evoluder · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm not sure about the rest, but Northwood is definitely a pornographic reference to Peter North.

  21. Tualain is a valley by kingbyu · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm rather disappointed in many of the responses I've seen here. It seems like most people just googled answers, rather than actually knowing. For example, an earlier post said:
    Tualain is also a burb of Portland
    While this is true, I live in Hillsboro along with several thousand other Intel-ites, and Hillsboro is the tualatin valley, which was named after that tualatin river.

    Interestingly enough, as I was taught in elementary school, tualatin is a Native American word meaning lazy or slow moving, as the tualatin river doesn't go very fast. I wonder if Intel thought about this when trying to come up with the name.

  22. Re: Your Sig by Anne_Nonymous · · Score: 2, Funny

    >> Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems

    Yeah, yeah. But when detention is over and that pretty girl goes home, you're gonna be sorry you've got blisters all over your hand.

  23. I work at Intel... by snot+whistle · · Score: 2, Funny

    I work at Intel and the names basically translate to "Is this thing supposed to get so hot?"

    Some of them mean "hey, watch the lights dim when I open MSWord!"

    Another means "This one is really really big, and heavy too."

    There ya go - mystery solved!

    --
    Where's Robin Hood? We could kinda really use him now.
  24. I haven't figured out the system yet... by raider_red · · Score: 2, Funny

    I haven't figured out their code naming system yet, but I'm sure there's some numeralogical way to add them up to 666.

    --
    It's good to use your head, but not as a battering ram.