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New Intel Trademark Filed

jmanforever writes "Reuters is reporting that 'Intel Inside VIIV' and 'Intel VIIV' were filed as U.S. trademarks. The question is, what does VIIV mean? Could this be the Roman numerals for 6-4 indicating a 64-bit chip, or could this be the Roman numeral five twice, separated by two lines, indicating the dual cores of the Pentium 5 chip?"

54 of 390 comments (clear)

  1. Pentium 6 by fembots · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or maybe it's Pentium 6, performs like a Pentium 4? Similar to AMD XP1800+ is 1.5GHz but performs like a 1.8GHz Pentium.

    Or maybe it's Pentium M2, after the success of Pentium M series. VIIV = upside down M with a II in the middle.

    Or maybe it's Penitum 5 Dual Core? "Pentium V, 2 Inside"

    Or maybe it's just a marketing stunt? Similar to Google's trademark application "Google R2D2".

    1. SBC Might Buy AT&T
    2. Google Planning Web Browser?
    3. Slashdot Considers Can-Dupe Act

    See the trend?

    1. Re:Pentium 6 by spac3manspiff · · Score: 2, Funny

      Maybe it's Intel Inside VIIV' and 'Intel VIIV' with AMD inside.

    2. Re:Pentium 6 by Altizar · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe they are just really bored and decided to get a trade mark on something really stupid to see how the press would react.

    3. Re:Pentium 6 by de1orean · · Score: 4, Funny

      clearly, it's

      \m/

      or

      PENTIUM R0x0RZZZZ!!!!11oneone

    4. Re:Pentium 6 by Fred_A · · Score: 5, Funny

      Obviously, Intel has branched into editors and will soon be releasing vi v. 4

      This suggests that AMD uses Emacs.

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    5. Re:Pentium 6 by timeflux · · Score: 5, Funny

      VIIV, ie, viiv, is a valid word [pronounced as veev] in turkish and it means "sucks".

    6. Re:Pentium 6 by MarkGriz · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or maybe Intel and Trent Reznor are trying to boost their popularity with a cross marketing campaign, and they really meant to trademark Pentium /VIV\

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    7. Re:Pentium 6 by Saiyine · · Score: 2, Funny

      will soon be releasing vi v. 4

      Do you mean viviv ?

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    8. Re:Pentium 6 by sharkey · · Score: 2, Funny

      No, it's the Pentium VIIV, Lucy Carmichael's wacky neighbor. Remember the one where they got locked in the Northbridge with Mr. Memory?

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    9. Re:Pentium 6 by tetromino · · Score: 5, Funny

      This suggests that AMD uses Emacs.

      Good thing those new Opterons are almost fast enough to run it...

    10. Re:Pentium 6 by ntufar · · Score: 3, Informative

      > There is no such word in Turkish. Plus Turkish words never start with sound "V". In general sound "vee" is very rare in Turkish. FYI

    11. Re:Pentium 6 by altan · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is not true. The closest word to "veev" would be "ve", which means and.

      Also, Turkish words cannot have two identical vowels next to each other, going on what I remember about 4th Grade in a Turkish school.

  2. pentium 5 by I+r+CommanderCool · · Score: 3, Insightful

    if it is pentium 5, it better be 64 bit.

    1. Re:pentium 5 by magarity · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm surprised they've kept the "Pentium" trademark so long

      That's like saying you're suprised Ford is still using the 'Mustang' name for some cars that have only loosest similarity to the first year Mustang. It's called 'Brand Awareness' and companies spend jillions on marketing campaigns to make consumers want [insert trademarked name here]. The name 'Pentium' is going to be used for as long as Intel can get mileage out of it.

    2. Re:pentium 5 by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Shouldn't they have moved to Hexium by now?

      With the Pentium IV they should have gone through Hexium, Heptium and Octium. They would be planning for the Nonium right now. Coming up would be Decium, Hendecium, Dodecium and Triskaidekium. Considering that, I guess I understand why they just stuck with the Roman numerals.

    3. Re:pentium 5 by Paladin128 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Continuing with your train of thought...

      Pentium III is i686 + MMX + SSE
      Pentium 4 is RISC on crack cocain
      Pentium M is the result of a P4 knocking up a PIII

      --
      Lex orandi, lex credendi.
    4. Re:pentium 5 by InvalidError · · Score: 2, Informative

      But really, the "proper" 686 is the Pentium Pro and it is the Pentium Pro's feature set that was used as the foundation for the P2 (basically a P-Pro+MMX) and P3 series.

      What the PPro brought to the table compared to the plain old Pentium was an independent cache bus, an extra execution pipeline, out-of-order execution and a bunch of other tweaks common in other architectures.

  3. Or could it be . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Intel's finally breached the barrier and will be releasing a 75-bit processor?

    1. Re:Or could it be . . . by tomhudson · · Score: 2, Interesting
      ... or a 6-bit pentium 4 ('cuz it will run cooler with fewer bits).

      It's probably for a quad-core p6.

  4. Intel Patented 64-bit and Dual Cores? by Master+Bait · · Score: 4, Funny

    Or did they patent a process where they do it all with mayonaisse, mustard and pickles?

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  5. Spelled wrong by mboverload · · Score: 5, Funny

    They just spelled "Viva la AMD" wrong.

  6. I'm betting on by Performaman · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Pentium 525. Dunno why, but it just sounds right.

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  7. My first thoughts by Tsiangkun · · Score: 2, Insightful

    six, four. Hmm I wonder if it's for a 64 bit chip.

    I didn't think about the 5 II 5 interpretation, and I doubt the market who needs to know "intel inside" would understand the symbol either way.

  8. In other news today by digitalgimpus · · Score: 5, Funny

    Intel also registred:

    MMDCL

    which is the roman numeral for the temperature their new chip will run.

  9. stackable design? by LiquidMind · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "The Pentium V is likely to fly along at between 5GHz to 7GHz, have 2MB plus of level two cache, be built on a 90 nanometer process, and have a stackable design." (Source, and another)

    does anyone know what they mean by stackable design?
    is this supposed to be taken literally? stacking one CPU on top of the other?
    or just some buzzwords that mean nothing that this implies?

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    1. Re:stackable design? by MBCook · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I believe that this refers to the ability to "stack" the cores together, that is create multicore chips. Sure there are supposed to be multicore P4s and Pentium Ms, but they are "hacked" together, not optomized for it. AMD's Opteron, on the other hand, has been designed for it from the start.

      That's my guess. Literally stacking cores not only would have terrible heat problems, but how do you deal with all those pins? 478 per core (the Pentium V will probably use even more than that) is 956 pins. But you would have to have a socket for those dual core chips, and another seperate socket for the single core chips. Complicated. Either that or you'd have to use 956 pin sockets for ALL chips and just not use half the pins. Again, complicated.

      Natural dual/triple/quad/whatever core is my guess. Not hacked, but designed for it specifically.

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    2. Re:stackable design? by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't think dual core Intels will necessarily increase the number of pins. They can both be separate cores on the same bus, much like a Xeon DP system. With the interconnects so close, they don't need to lower the FSB clock to prevent signal issues. A one processor system, the clock can go higher because it acts like a point-to-point bus. A multiprocessor system with multiple processors on the bus is more complicated from a signal transmission line perspective.

    3. Re:stackable design? by pjbass · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sure there are supposed to be multicore P4s and Pentium Ms, but they are "hacked" together, not optimized for it. AMD's Opteron, on the other hand, has been designed for it from the start.

      I can't argue the fact (and won't) that AMD designed their Opteron for dual-core from its inception, due to the memory controller, and today's P4's and PM's are not. However, you really should read up on the Cedar Mill and Smithfield platforms that Intel has announced. Sure the first dual-core procs they'll release will be two Prescotts welded together (presumably by running them next to each other...), but the true "dual-core" procs they intend to sell are designed from the beginning to be dual-core. I've seen one of the Cedar Mill processors running in the debug lab, and trust me, it's running much faster than the current procs, plus it's dual-core, and it consumes less overall power than today's single proc (think 5 GHz, dual-core, ~90 watts, vs. 3.6 GHz PSC, ~110 watts) and does not suffer from the memory bus starvation that the Xeon's currently die from. Intel has their designs right for their dual-core line.

  10. Re:Roman Numerals by Samari711 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I bet the Romans are going to be pissed about this...

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  11. CVVC by zakezuke · · Score: 2, Funny

    Honda Inside.

    Now known as the Civic.

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  12. Slashdot's new tag line by BigWhiteGuy_27 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Slashdot - Speculation for Nerds. Stuff that Might Be.

    1. Re:Slashdot's new tag line by 1lus10n · · Score: 2, Funny

      Slashdot - Speculation about things that were posted before. Nerds bitching about stuff.

      Slashdot - Now we are running low on stories. Someone post something quick !

      Slashdot - Not really news. Might be someday.

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  13. Reminds me by geneing · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Somehow this reminds me about another trademark "Pentax *ist" (a bunch of digital cameras). It's way too silly to pronounce that ("May I see that Pentax starist camera please...")

    The official explanation is that '*' can stand for anything you consider your are (like artist).

  14. gross conjecture by Antonymous+Flower · · Score: 4, Funny

    "The question is, what does VIIV mean? Could this be the Roman numerals for 6-4 indicating a 64-bit chip, or could this be the Roman numeral five twice, separated by two lines, indicating the dual cores of the Pentium 5 chip?"

    After this and this I'm forced to the conclusion that these three stories are three points on a grid forming a triangle corresponding with the location of Atlantis. Could it mean Slashdot editors are from another planet? Could it mean open source is to the renaissance as ancient greece is to atlantis?

  15. Re:Roman Numerals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    yes the Intelites are going to be crucified.

  16. Re:Learn you Roman numerals by painandgreed · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... but it can't be any of those, including 6 4, because that's not how roman numerals are composed. VIIV is nonsense as a roman numeral.

    And that is why they'd be able to trademark it. Can't trademark a number IIRC, which is why they opted for the Pentium name instead of 586. If it were actual Roman numerals, it would be a number and untrademarkable. Since it is nonsence, they can trademark it.

    Sound like an explanatio to anybody else?

  17. Re:intel Trademarks by InfiniteWisdom · · Score: 3, Funny

    iDoubt iT. iAm thinking iMac, iPod, iTunes. iThink iTs a different company

  18. Maybe you should read it like GNU by Fortran+IV · · Score: 4, Funny

    VIIV -> "V Isn't IV" -> "Pentium 5 Isn't Pentium 4"

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    1. Re:Maybe you should read it like GNU by photon_chac · · Score: 2, Funny

      got to be "VIIV Isn't IV" meaning "we've got this something that's definitely not P4"

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  19. Intel sucks by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, it's a picture of a vampire's front teeth! Intel has been taken over by the biters!

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  20. Perhaps... by natron+2.0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It could be a Pentium 5 with Intel Inside

    Example:

    V=5
    II=Intel Inside
    V=5

  21. VI is the mirror image of IV... by hkfczrqj · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's going to be dual core, everybody knows that... So if one core (a "Pentium IV" core) is the mirror image of the other, why don't call the other core "VI muitneP"?? Well, VIIV is much more appealing than "VI muitnePPentium IV" (the first P is supposed to be backwards)...

    I'm thinking too much bull... I should go home.

  22. 5 [parallel sign] 5 by azpcox · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's simply their multiple core pentium 5.

    Don't get hung up on the Roman Numerals.

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  23. MMX by siliconjunkie · · Score: 3, Funny

    They patented "MMX" as well. Perhaps they have something planned for 2010?

    1. Re:MMX by Bri3D · · Score: 2

      What are you talking about? This is not about patents but trademarks. And MMX has been in Intel processors since the P2MMX, so it can't be delay wither.

  24. Roman numerals aren't positional... by curious.corn · · Score: 3, Interesting

    VIIV isn't VI(6E1)+IV(4E0). that's totally wrong. Romans used different letters to distinguish 1 (I), 5 (V), 10 (X), 50 (L), 100 (C), 500 (D), 1000 (M) You get magnitude relatives to the letter by subtracting (prefixing) or adding (postfixing) the preceding magnitude unit: 1 (I), 10(X), 100 (C) up to 3 symbols. That's a rough description mind you as this rule takes an exception on the 5* symbols which can't repeat (they're a sort of calculating cornerstone). Yeah it sucks, one wonders how they could get along commerce, taxes and precise civil engineering calculations with this method. So, an intel 64 should read "intel LXIV"... if they really intend to pursue this nomenclature we'll have a glorious laugh over here. (I'm typing from less than 1 mile away from the Appia Antica)

    --
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    1. Re:Roman numerals aren't positional... by AJWM · · Score: 3, Funny

      I meant to add:

      So, given the above, the new Intel trademark stands for a chip that's about as good as a broken abacus.

      --
      -- Alastair
    2. Re:Roman numerals aren't positional... by ckolar · · Score: 2, Informative

      But you are not thinking like Roman. The numbers make sense if you remember that they would have used an abacus for calculations -- so IV would mean de-incriment the ones column and increment the fives. Here is a nice site that talks a bit about the business aspects.

  25. Re:Perhaps Intel has friends in high places... by Em+Ellel · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's all in the font. It's a dubya can't y'all see that!?

    V\/V


    Would that not be tripya?

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  26. VIIV by njfuzzy · · Score: 2, Funny
    Conclusive proof that Intel's marketing guys are idiots.

    80286 = "286"
    80386 = "386"
    80486 = "486"
    80586 = "Pentium" (faux latin for "Five")
    80686 = "Pentium II" (fault latin + roman numberals for five-two)

    Followed by... (in no particular order)

    Celeron = cheap processor, faux latin for "fast" (based on, well, a whole lot of different actual Pentium chips dumbed down)

    Xenon = Noble gas... Totally inert

    Pentium III

    Pentium 4

    Itanium

    So, duhh... of course the next one is Pentium VIIV

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  27. What? by rbarreira · · Score: 2, Funny
    From TFA:

    Microprocessors, the central chip in computers, are among the most complex products ever produced by humankind, composed of hundreds of millions of microscopic switches that check e-mail and play video games.
    Wow, so there are switches reading my e-mail and playing games when they should be processing? :(
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  28. I knew it all along... by haelduksf · · Score: 3, Funny

    Now Intel is admitting it! VI=6 V+I+I+V=12 (6+6) Thus, 666. Obviously. On an ironic sidenote, they will be hot as hell.

  29. It's been Roman Numerals all along by Namarrgon · · Score: 2, Funny
    Ah, so clearly this is how the progression goes:

    Pentium..........(original)
    Pentium II.......(twice as good)
    Pentium III......(3x as good)
    Pentium IV......(4x as good)
    Pentium M.......(1000x as good)
    Pentium MMX.(2010x as good)

    Apparently the Pentium III-M and IV-M were fairly good chips too.

    --
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  30. IV is a mediaeval invention by Cardbox · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you live that close to the Via Appia Antica then you can pop out and look at the tombs at lunchtime (give Cecilia Metella my love) and check the story I heard from a classics don that IV and IX and XL were mediaeval contracted notations for IIII VIIII and XXXX and the ancient Romans never used them.
    Incidentally, Roman numerals were used in written contracts for quite a long time after we started using Arabic ones for calculation, because it was harder to alter the amounts fraudulently after they'd been written.