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K7 Renamed "Athlon"
rippy writes "It seems
like AMD is following in Intel's footsteps and giving a
goofy name to their processors. Insted of K7, the name is
now changed to "Athlon".
I saw it on Ars. " I'm
still waiting for chips to have model years just like Operating
Systems (cough)
Its PAT!
Setting his threshold to 5, Sparky eliminated most of the trolls on /.
Yes, this is probably a trademark issue.
Anything that is "too obvious" cannot be registered as a trademark. This includes:
So if no other company has registered "Athlon" (in the computer business), then AMD can be sure that nobody else will sell a processor called K7.
They will also have more control over the name. For example, if someone claims to have a device which is "Athlon-certified", AMD will have something to say about it (i.e. they could sue the guy if that claim is false). But if it was only "K7-certified", it would have been easy for anyone to say that they were refering to some other obscure chip that just happens to be also called K7 and they could get away with it.
So from a trademark point of view, having the K7 renamed "Athlon" makes a lot of sense. Whether or not the name "Athlon" is good and will help selling the chip is another story...
-Raphaël
So, AMD has produced decent product in the past, but I don't think that they've ever spent a significant amount of money on marketing or PR. Kudos to them for making the decision to bring their products away from techie-dom and into the mainstream.
For geeks, names like "K7" and "Windows v3.4.2" are great. We want to know where it fits into the product line and whether it's new or old. However, for mainstream folk, they want a friendly product that's going to make that tan box on their desk go.
AMD and Cyrix (may she rest in peace) have always had branding problems. The seeming omnipotence of Intel comes from their incredible marketing machine. Remember the $100 million spent on the marketing of the PIII?
Perception is key in the eyes of the public and there's always been a skewed understanding of "underdog" chips. Perhaps with a new vision, AMD will be able to shake their "second-best" image and gain some steam with the American public.
~mnj
Invidia fortunum ovit.
Just because they're calling the K7 "Athlon" now (how does one pronounce Athlon anyway -- I keep think "Altheon" for some reason. Altheon sounds better, IMHO :), doesn't mean they're dropping the K7 moniker. As was pointed out elsewhere, K7 is probably not trademark-able, and thus Athlon was choosen as the name for the trades. Remember the K6-III is also known as "Sharptooth" -- a far better name, IMHO. Thus I wouldn't read too much into the name change.
Time Lord, Dark Horse: The Techno Mage of Gallifrey
...if you had a triple-processor box built with these things, you'd have a triathlon. *groan*
--John Riney
jwriney@awod.com
Sounds like an athlete's foot powder or perhaps a vitamin additive.
Note to AMD -- don't give your products "cool Ninety-Fifties Buzzword" names.
-- adr
What's wrong with "K7" anyway? I like it.
Yeah... I'd much rather have a "Katmai" than a "Pentium III". And "Mendocino" sounds so much cooler than "Celeron"...
The marketroids can name them whatever they like. I'm going to keep calling them "K7", anyway...
Dude,
You just wait, when the "Beijing" chip comes out - it will kick the crap out of your damn "Nepal" "Tibetan" or "Himalayan" processors and opress the bejesus out of your system...
I think what is going to happen now is that Compaq is going to now buy AMD.
Once they have bought AMD, they will put it under the Digital Equipment Corp. flag, and we will see lots and lots of really cool computers that read:
CPU: DEC Athlon
Or maybe I am just wrong?
>I'm still waiting to see if they can produce
>parts in a timely manner. Intel just stumbled,
>and if AMD can't produce K7s in quantity they
>will miss one of the few opportunities they will
>ever get to be number one.
That is indeed the sixty-four dollar question. This isn't one of the few opportunities for AMD, they've had it for each of the last couple of generations, and blown it each time by not being able to produce in quantity. If they make it this time, their stock goes through the roof. If they don't, can they survive another blunder? Each time they pay the full R&D cost to get current, and lose the early sales that pay for the R&D. Commodity chips don't cover that cost (unless you're using an old enough technology, like the C5).
Actually...a DECathlon would be the result of a collaboration between the late Digital and AMD. And a PentAthlon would be the love child of Intel and AMD. (The PentAthlon III - 7 With MMNow!)
--John Riney
jwriney@awod.com
I would call it: Calculon
"Calculon! We thought you were dead..."
Apologies to Matt Groenig and his funny-people
We reserve the right to serve refuse to anyone. -management
uhm.. how does one upstarting company create a product that is garunteed to give them a Monopoly in a market without doing anything ?
The point is, MS would have never gotten where it is today without marketing. which all Bill Gates is a salesman. He was able to promote a faulty product to millions of people and to make ludicris contracts in his favor with other companies.
--shadowgod--
"Perfection is a glass ceiling that everyone holds themselves up to" --shadowgod
Athlon as they make a good chip and can manufacture pentium them, they'll be okay. I wonder if they will celeron $400?
I'm surprised everyone's commented on the name they chose and no one's mentioned the legal reasons why a name is preferable to a 'series number.' A series number isn't trademarkable, the way a name is. Theoretically, someone could have come along and started selling "486" chips that had absolutely no connection to Intel's 486 chips... that would just 'happen' to be the other companies' series number, just as it was for Intel, and who could expect to trademark a number? On the other hand, no one could come along and start calling their own chips "Pentium," which is why those chips were called Pentiums rather than 586's. IANAL, though, so if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.
It is a goofy name.
Pentium was goofy.
Celeron was goofy.
Xeon was kinda cool - but still way overpriced.
PowerPC was the goofiest of all.
Alpha, was a VERY cool name.
"The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
-jafac's law
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.