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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!"

15 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.
  5. 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

  6. 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.
  7. 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.

  8. 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."
  9. 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
  10. The Biblical References by drmerope · · Score: 3, Insightful

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

  11. 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 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

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

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

  13. 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.