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Intel Confuses, Rebrands Some Core M Processors As Core I (laptopmag.com)

Reader thegarbz writes: As already covered previously Intel has announced it's 7th generation Kaby Lake processors. Curiously absent from the announcement was any mention of Core m5 and Core m7 product lines. As it turns out, Intel quietly removed the m branding and rolled its budget processors up into the Core i5 and Core i7 brands.

When we met with representatives of Intel to talk about Kaby Lake, they said that consumers didn't understand the Core m branding and that this move would help alleviate customer confusion.But what's more confusing: having two different brand names for different types of CPU or having the same name for both? Intel will tell you that you have to pay attention to the SKU numbers at the end of the chip names. And if you do, you can sidestep the issue. The regular i-series will continue as usual: Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7, with all of the processor numbers ending in the letter "U" (the i3-7100U, i5-7200U and i7-7500U). The former m5 and m7 will have the letter "Y" in the name (i5-7Y54, i7-7Y75 and m3-7Y30).


61 comments

  1. The only question I have is by Kyogreex · · Score: 4, Funny

    Y Intel?

    1. Re:The only question I have is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You iisspellyed Intelu.

    2. Re:The only question I have is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They should stick with the x86 naming convention and retroactively rename all CPUs.

      586 = Pentium
      686 = Pentium II/III
      786 = Pentium 4
      886 = Core
      986 = Core 2
      1086 = Core i Nehelem
      1186 = Core i Sandy Bridge
      1286 = Core i Haswell
      1386 = Core i Skylake
      1486 = Core i Icelake

      Any of the lesser CPUs of a family can have SX, SL, etc. appended.

  2. How in the world by TFlan91 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How in the world is that less confusing?

    "Don't look at the product name to know what you are buying, look at that tiny ass number on the bottom of the box! Duh!"

    1. Re:How in the world by SeaFox · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How in the world is that less confusing?

      It's not. I suspect the real reason is to remove the less-desireable m-branding from the products and trick some unwitting people into buying lower-performing hardware.

    2. Re:How in the world by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The product names were broken already. I'm typing this on my work-issued 2011 Mac mini, which has a Sandy Bridge Core i5.

      Wow, Core i5! That means it's a quad-core, right? Bitchin'! My e-peen looms over your head, dominating your view of the heavens. Tremble before my Mac mini's might!

      Nope. It's just a dual-core (with hyperthreading), exactly what you expect from a Core i3. But Intel calls it an i5. Whatever.

    3. Re:How in the world by radarskiy · · Score: 2

      The Y SKUs are the sub-5 Watt SKUs, so you're never in a position to be comparing a Y to a U is you're at the level where you are looking at the 3,5,7 branding.

      If you are at the level where you are looking at the complete model number, then you were already looking at Y vs. U and ignoring the 3,5,7 so this is no additional effort.

    4. Re:How in the world by Dogtanian · · Score: 2

      How in the world is that less confusing?

      It's not, it's just another case of too many marketers spoiling the broth.

      A similar example is the revived Pentium brand. This was fine when it originally when it represented Intel's "mainstream" x86 line, with Celeron being the cut down models and Xeon the server versions. Simple. Then they ditched the name when the Core brand came out. Whatever; except that instead of sticking with the new hierarchy, they decided to bring the Pentium brand back.

      Only now its old place had been taken and there was no clear need for it, so (from what I can tell), they sort of fudged a gap that didn't exist between the Celeron and the mainstream Core lines. That appears to be the poorly-defined and generally pointless market positioning for the post-resurrection Pentium brand (and one that is at odds with its previous "main line" positioning).

      There was absolutely no need for this.

      Ironically I'm pretty sure the people with the least understanding of (and interest in) Intel's chips are those likely to be buying computers based around upper-entry-level chips like the "Pentium".

      You can argue whether or not they should have ditched the name in the first place, but having done so, it was an absolutely stupid idea to bring it back. It smacks of someone in marketing trying to justify their salary (and get noticed) by waving about some market research showing that the Pentium name still had value and they should use it again.

      Of course, it could be that Intel know *exactly* what they're doing and were/are deliberately making the naming of their chips more opaque and confusing in an attempt to exploit rational ignorance.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    5. Re:How in the world by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Always check the passmark score on the CPU before buying a new laptop. Ignore any CPU that's not at least 50% faster than your previous laptop.

    6. Re: How in the world by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is false advertising/marketing. FTC should do a quick slapdown on Intel's new false advertising practices.

    7. Re:How in the world by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      You can argue whether or not they should have ditched the name in the first place, but having done so, it was an absolutely stupid idea to bring it back.

      This sort of flip-flopping makes no sense when viewed from the outside, but if you look at the internal politics, it does. Most likely the original decision was opposed by some VP or faction, but was pushed through anyway. Now the power has shifted, and the re-namers are out of power, so bringing back the "old-name" is a way for their opponents to emphasize their dominance, sort of the way that an alpha monkey will shake his pee-pee at the other monkeys.

      Anyone that expects a corporation to behave logically and consistently over a period of years has never sat in a boardroom and seen the petty politics and childish score-setting that goes on.

    8. Re:How in the world by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      This sort of flip-flopping makes no sense when viewed from the outside, but if you look at the internal politics, it does. [..] Anyone that expects a corporation to behave logically and consistently over a period of years has never sat in a boardroom and seen the petty politics and childish score-setting that goes on.

      Oh, I agree entirely- I've no doubt that's a plausible explanation too.

      Point is that the decision smacked of internal positioning and politics- whether it was some mediocrity trying to increase their prominence or importance or (as you suggested) internal factionalising and displays of power, or whatever- rather than being about what was best from a marketing point of view. Because it wasn't!

      I posted a comment several years back explaining how the well-known contradiction of MS employing countless talented researchers but never being able to translate that into anything more than safe, uninnovative mediocrity was significantly due to their internal structure and politics.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    9. Re:How in the world by Carewolf · · Score: 1

      How in the world is that less confusing?

      "Don't look at the product name to know what you are buying, look at that tiny ass number on the bottom of the box! Duh!"

      Well, to be fair. The core i5 and i7 processors ending in U, are not real mobile i7 or i5s either and should have been labelled at most mobile i3, since the i7U is 2 core 4 threads like a proper mobile i3H is

    10. Re:How in the world by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Now, now, you're confusing that with AMD's Black Edition CPUs. This is about Intel.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    11. Re: How in the world by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Having worked on scads of laptops, I learned Intel will gladly put their sticker on any piece of trash laptop just to sell a product. Customers are disappointed to know that, no you don't have a virus, your computer just sucks more than the previous one. Check out the commercials with that's Sheldon kid (I forget his name) and you'll realize Intel is more about marketing garbage than making a processor, which is why the vast majority of their products simply suck monkey nuts in terms of performance or price and sometimes even both.

    12. Re:How in the world by toddestan · · Score: 1

      That's because the Mac Mini uses mobile processors, and most (all?) mobile Core i5's are dual core with Hyperthreading. The real fun is that the lower-end mobile Core i7's are also dual cores with Hyperthreading. I'm not even sure what the difference is supposed to be between those and the mobile i5's, except perhaps a bit more L3 cache.

  3. What? by 110010001000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    All I care about is if it is a Dell or not. I don't know what a core is.

    1. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If Comcast had a warranty, it would be called "Dell."

  4. Why bother? by ausekilis · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why even bother with that? They could have gone with a car-like naming convention.

    {series}{grade}{desktop/laptop/lowpower}{overclock}{arbitraryCharacterToConfuse}
    Why, they only need to say "Our top of the line is the 358DKL!, it's much higher powered than the 799PNS!"

    Bonus that they could be read much like a license plate. Who wouldn't snicker at the chance to say "three-fifty-eight dickel" or "seven-ninety-nine penis"?

    1. Re:Why bother? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The joke's on everyone who buys it thinking it means 7.99 inches; everyone else knows that it's in centimeters.

  5. Wish to alleviate customer confusion by meerling · · Score: 2

    And push it completely into total apathy.

  6. Benchmark by chrpai · · Score: 3, Insightful

    To be honest, they are so many product lines and SKUs out there these days that the only thing I do is search for the passmark rating and make sure it isn't a total dog and that it's at least a little bit better then what I used to have. Is there a better approach? For my desktop / hyper-v server I'm still running a 5 year old i7-2600k (passmark 8504) and don't really see any need to replace it. My laptop is running an i7-2620m (passmark 3811) and it seems fine to.

    1. Re:Benchmark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems fine to what?

    2. Re:Benchmark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Watch porn, what else?

    3. Re:Benchmark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The last 6-9 years I have been upgrading when I get double performance (by passmark) for about the same price ($150 cpu $300 total) -- about every 3 years. I'll be on schedule for a passmark 8000 this year. I hope Zen pulls through to drive down price! It's creeping into 4 years in 2017.

    4. Re:Benchmark by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Guess that free CPU I got back in 2010 that's at 8900 was a pretty good deal.

  7. Also curiously absent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is any editing of the submissions. It's means it is.

    1. Re:Also curiously absent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What is there to edit? Intel announced that they are 7th generation Kaby Lake processors. They can announce anything they want.

  8. We care... but no one else does by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    It seems like stupid naming, but I can't see how the change has much real-world relevance. How many people pay attention to the processor at all, except Slashdot types?

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:We care... but no one else does by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems like stupid naming, but I can't see how the change has much real-world relevance. How many people pay attention to the processor at all, except Slashdot types?

      People who buy processors. That could be someone like me who periodically buys a processor (and motherboard) separately and upgrades/rebuilds a system. That could also be OEMs who sell complete systems and want to differentiate one line of products from another. None of the above requires using Slashdot.

      What did you expect, exactly? Dipshit.

  9. Intel Core i13 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Intel Core i13 form its Hasbro series of processors will have 3.7 cores. Core A will run at 3.2 Ghz, Core B will run at 2.98 Ghz, Core 3 will run at 3.6 GHz and core X will run at 6.8 Mhz.

    1. Re:Intel Core i13 by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      And AMD Maxpower will beat and max out the limits of your cooling.

  10. of course it is to alleviate customer confusion. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does anyone believe that ? The one thing that is clear with regards to CPU naming (and GPU/Graphic cards as well btw) is that it is deliberately designed to confuse people.

  11. Re:of course it is to alleviate customer confusion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does anyone believe that ? The one thing that is clear with regards to CPU naming (and GPU/Graphic cards as well btw) is that it is deliberately designed to confuse people.

    Yes it is horribly confusing to people who are too fucking lazy or stupid to perform a Google search.

  12. They use the same core by Solandri · · Score: 5, Informative

    This isn't like Atom, which used an entirely different core design. Core M (both Broadwell and Skylake) is just a regular Core i, with a lower TDP and clock speeds. Core M Broadwell limited Turbo Boost to a single core, but Skylake will Turbo on both cores. It seems to be using the i7 dual core design, since Core M has 4MB cache like the i7, instead of 3MB like the i5 and i3. Which is also why Skylake Core M beats out a similarly-clocked Skylake mobile i5 in certain short benchmarks - the benchmark isn't long enough for thermal throttling to kick in, and the 4MB cache beats out the 3MB cache.

    1. Re:They use the same core by unixisc · · Score: 1

      I used to be a CPU whiz, and I never followed nor figured out what the Core M was. Thanks for explaining it. It does confuse things when Core M means different things in Broadwell vs Skylake vs Kaby Lake, so Intel has done well by rebranding it

    2. Re:They use the same core by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      They've had the same core for a while, that doesn't change the fact that they were setup and advertised as two different tiers of hardware with different performance and different price points. This made for easy advertising. You knew what to expect when a laptop was advertised with an i7 inside. Not anymore.

  13. Re:of course it is to alleviate customer confusion by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is the nVidia GTX 5000 Ti slower or faster than the Radeon R11 2500?
    Is the Intel i9-3400X slower or faster than the AMD Athlon X8-1200Z?

    It's not about being too lazy to do some research, it's that even when you have all the information it's still confusing.

  14. INTELU ISU STUPIDUUUUU by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ioiyiy, why iyust we reiovye "m" froiy all words and replace theiy withu "i" and then put a ranydoi "y" intou those words too?
    And why iyust we put "y" at the end of any word that already containedu an "i"?

    Because Intelu saidu so.

    INTELU ISU STUPIDUUUUU

  15. Re:of course it is to alleviate customer confusion by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    Also what the rebranding that both amd and nvidia does with the video cards?

  16. no need to worry by I4ko · · Score: 0

    With the bullshit OS fiasco, the hardware bugs and silicon backdoors I would never buy anything newer than Broadwell.

  17. Re:of course it is to alleviate customer confusion by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

    You mean nVidia 8600GS vs GTX 680, for example?

    Yes, that's yet another hurdle in understanding their marketing numbers.

  18. Re:of course it is to alleviate customer confusion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, it's worse than that. Take for example the GTX 1600 Nividia recently released.

    If you buy a GTX 1060 3GB you get 1152 shaders. If you buy a GTX 1060 6GB you get 1280.
    The naming is deceptive bullshit.

    In blissful days of yore (2011) I bought an AMD 6950, the variant of chip with more shaders was the 6970.
    I knew what I was getting because the part's name actually meant something distinctive from other better or shittier parts.

  19. Core M by puddingebola · · Score: 2

    Not sure about this line of processors to begin with. Do consumers really care about the thinness and lightness of their laptop that much? It may offer more possibilities to PC makers going forward in terms of the form of the devices they can imagine and create, but look at a new Macbook and a Macbook Air, Core M vs Core i5. You have a drop in performance for the Core M and the weight difference is shedding a mere 0.35 pounds. It seems to me once you hit 2.5 pounds and half an inch thick you are bumping up against a law of diminishing returns. Not sure how cost factors in however, and I have been wrong many times before.

    1. Re:Core M by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      As someone who holds my laptop, yes I care. Less closed thinking please. We're in a world of a hundred devices for a hundred purposes. Crossover devices are not think and light enough yet.

    2. Re:Core M by Ayanami_R · · Score: 1

      Oh gods yes. I have a woman at work that works with very large and complicated excel spreadsheets. She will only use an 11 inch MacAir, because ANYTHING ELSE is TOO HEAVY. Even though she admits its very challenging working on such a small screen, she's slower to work, and that it gives her headaches, she won't budge.

      --
      "Science is the power of man"
  20. The thing that I care about by rossdee · · Score: 2

    is whether or not the CPU is one of these 'will only run Win 10' ones, or is it able to run other OS's

    1. Re:The thing that I care about by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um. There aren't any "only run Win10" CPUs. They are still x86 CPUs and will run Linux/FreeBSD/etc just fine. The "only Win10" was in reference to updates to take advantage of advanced instructions will only be implemented in Win10. So even then older Windows operating systems will work, they just won't get the latest SSE4 instruction set support from the OS. So, microsoft will only be supporting updated chipset instruction in the Win10 operating system. Those updated instructions are optional, so Win7 will still work and it will have nothing to do with *nix support for those chips.

    2. Re:The thing that I care about by ewanm89 · · Score: 1

      Not to mention, I bet Linux and GCC support for the instructions will actually happen first. Linux usually gets CPU instruction set support first as an open test platform but it is rarely advertised. Finally it does not stop individual applications implementing such instruction sets either way. In fact, there is very little in the kernels of either OS that would benefit from these specialist instruction sets.

    3. Re:The thing that I care about by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I would care more about people understanding the difference between a marketing announcement and actually breaking backwards compatibility. Your old windows will run on a new processor just fine. Just don't expect it to use all the fancy new features.

      MS made an announcement about something which has been standard in the computer would now for 20 years and people collectively lose their shit.

  21. There's only 1 reason. by fishscene · · Score: 1

    There's only 1 reason for this - and it is NOT to alleviate confusion of consumers. Instead, it's to help prevent them from ASKING in the first place. Why would the customer ask about something they can't see and thus, aren't made aware of? It's pretty close to a bait-and-switch in my opinion, in that the customer thinks they are getting one thing, and are really getting another. I'd wager there "y" series is a little more expensive than it ordinarily would be too. /end rant.

  22. Confusion is usually the actual goal by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    Having an easy and accurate choice for consumers is far less preferable than making them look at all your products, and potentially have to decide on buying the more expensive on the basis it must be better.

    I expect video card makers to change up their numbering systems any day now for just this reason.

  23. Easier?! by Moof123 · · Score: 1

    Why make better value for our customers with more cores and/or lower prices when we can just barf alphanumeric soup all over the box?

    Seriously, all the naming obsfucation has taken the fun out of building a new PC, and Win10 has sucked the fun out of owning one. You have to do a lot of searching around to dig through all the marketing BS to figure out what components actually do and whether they are worth the change to buy them

  24. U is for "Useable" by lusid1 · · Score: 2

    and Y is for "Yuck!", got it.

    1. Re:U is for "Useable" by flyingfsck · · Score: 1

      Brilliant! Very memorable.

      --
      Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
    2. Re:U is for "Useable" by GrumpyNope · · Score: 1

      This is perfect. I was just wondering how I was going to remember this stupidity.

  25. Re:of course it is to alleviate customer confusion by Blaskowicz · · Score: 1

    There's R7 240 with GDDR3 memory, R7 240 with GDDR5, R7 250 with GDDR3 and R7 250 with GDDR5.
    Both are only named "R7 240" and "R7 250". The perf difference is tremendous, it's a nastier and older trick. The 240 GDDR5 is much faster than the 240 GDDR3, and a lot faster than the 250 GDDR3 too.

  26. When obfuscation is your business model by The_Revelation · · Score: 1

    I suspect this is how HP are planning on getting away with shipping i5 and i7 processors in its new form factor PCs. They sound fast, until you realise the i5 and i7 are really M/Ys.

  27. More SihinyThing Marketing by John+Allsup · · Score: 1

    By making the labelling more confusing, fewer buyers can make informed buying decisions, and are thus more subject to the ShinyThingEffect (whereby there is little intelligent thought capable of counting the feelings of 'Oooh! ShinyThing!') and then manufacturers get a level playing field of ShinyThing-ness.

    --
    John_Chalisque