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Intel Roadmap Update: The Art of Naming Processors
THG writes "CoolTechZone.com has compiled a list of Intel processors from its roadmaps, and discusses Intel's naming convention. According to the article, 'Gone are the days when processor names were something as simple as their clock speeds. If you wanted a nice and powerful 3GHz processor, you simply asked for a P4 3.0GHz and that was it. Ever since Intel has decided to revamp its naming conventions, the confusion makes you wonder if the whole idea of renaming was a smart move. Moving on with Intel and it's desktop endeavors, the problem is that if the names were as simple as stated above, we would've somehow managed to figure them all out. But someone at Intel obviously wanted to ensure that we don't remember processor names without having a 100-page manual on product families, so there are modifications to each series, which may or may not be consistent across different series.'"
...the "Pentium Pro".
i ngSpaghettiMonster-forbid, "Sexium"!), they called it the "Pentium Pro". So, evidently, the number six was then redefined as "Five Pro".
;)
'Pentium' derives from 'penta'-- i.e. FIVE, as in "five-eighty-six", as in 80586-- the successor to the four-eighty-six.
That made sense. Kinda.
But then Intel designed the six-eighty-six, and instead of "Hexium" (or, Allah/Yahweh/Zeus/Vishnu/InvisiblePinkUnicorn/Fly
Then Intel kept improving (well, or at least adding to) the 686 design, but not only did they never label any of these newer-gen chips the 80786, 80886, 80986, etc., but they kept the goddamned 'Pentium' brand.
This makes perfect sense from a marketing (read: "a suit's") perspective, but absolutely no mathematical or logical sense.
If Intel invented counting, we'd all count something like this:
"Zero, zero, one, two, three, four, five, five pro, five II, five II point xeon, five III, five III point xeon, five IV, five IV point xeon, five IV extreme edition, five M..."
Of course, this isn't all that different from the convoluted way the French count...
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
Code names are just as bad as the official part numbers.
However, if you haven't figured out already, Intel is moving away from directly selling CPUs based on their speeds and starting to bundle 'Platforms.'
This started mostly with Centrino (the platform), since it's not a CPU. And is now continuing into the Desktop and Server marketspaces.
It's their hopes that end users won't ask for "pentium 4!" but rather (insert catchy platform name here). It's worked well with Laptops. People want Centrino! And it'll likely work with Desktops, but probably not so much servers.
With that their naming conventions for individual parts are also going to get even more screwy...
But, on the other hand, Intel is not the only one to have evil codenames. They, as well as their competators, should just stick with sequential numbering so one can say "higher number is newer!"
It's just Crap.
Interesting you mention light trucks. We know that Dodge and GM are better than Ford because they have 1500's, 2500's, and 3500's.
At one point, GM used 10, 15, 20, and 25. I think Dodge had a D-10. But, Ford countered with the 100 (having dropped the F-1).
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
The fishy smell is usually caused by vaginal infection. IANAD, but you might want to consult one.
(for the benefit of those that do not speak Portuguese... sem pr0n = without pr0n.. although, due to a peculiarity of the Portuguese language, words cannot end with the letter 'n'.. IIRC, the whole Inquisition was started because some heretics started using the letter "n" at the end of words.. it's true! really!)
I've been saying that for years. I don't think AMD's much better though. Everything's been Athlon until Sempron came out. Just look at Athlon 64; they're like four versions, at least. I got a stepping 4 Athlon 64 3000+. It's completely different from the Athlon 64 3000+. For starters it uses a different socket and has 120nm transistors instead of 90nm. Same name though.
BTW, Sexium doesn't make that much sense. Penta is from ancient Greek, as is hexa, so hexium makes sense. For sexium to work (and that would be sweet), pentiums would have had to have been called quintiums. (Unus, duo, trio, quattour, quintus, sex, septum, etc.). Personally, I think AMD should have called their 586 a quintium, and then called Athlon sexium. Man, the ad campaigns would have ROCKED! The funniest part about the whole pentium name is that while penta is Greek, the -ium ending is Latin, bastardized Latin at that. (the -um ending is certainly Latinesque, the 'i', however, is not. Words ending in -ium are called i-stem words and the 'i' is part of the base of the word, not the ending.). Intel's name people obviously had no background in dead languages, that's for sure.
I would be, but sadly, the number does not express this. Some of the 5xx series outperform the 6xx series, and the 840 and 840EE have quite different performance. Add to that, the 7xx Pentium Ms, while possessing a higher number than the 3xx, 5xx and 6xx processors, are outperformed by them for the most part (some of the celerons might be slower). And its not even based on price! The nice 6xx's cost the same or more than the 8xx's!
Umm, that's good and all for the Athlon XP and 64 series, but could you please tell me how an Opteron 148 compares to a 175 or a 240?