By Tom Mainelli, PC World (US)
March 22, 2004 7:20 am ET
Intel Corp. is shifting the focus of its processor names away from megahertz. After years of driving CPU sales by promoting faster clock speeds as a measure of better performance, the chip giant on Friday announced a new processor naming scheme.
All future Intel desktop and mobile chips will receive a processor series number -- 300, 500, or 700 -- based on the chip's specific brand family. For example, on the desktop side, new Celeron chips will be the 300 series, Pentium 4s the 500 series, and the P4 Extreme Editions the 700 series. Within each series, the company will further differentiate each chip based upon its architecture, clock speed, frontside bus, cache, and other technologies.
The new naming scheme is designed to help buyers differentiate between chips based upon all of their features, not just clock speed, said Don MacDonald, vice president of Intel's sales and marketing group during a low-key press event announcing the plan. That's because megahertz is no longer the best way to pick the right processor for a specific computing job.
"A single metric cannot define everyone's measure of goodness," he said.
The numbers aren't indicative of any level of performance, "unless you redefine what performance means," MacDonald explained. "It's the sum of processor features. The focus on gigahertz isn't helpful to consumers anymore."
Mobile Muddle
Intel competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. introduced a processor model numbering scheme based on performance testing several years ago. AMD made the change when Intel's Pentium 4 processor began to outrun its Athlon XP chips in terms of clock speed, if not always benchmark scores.
Intel has encountered a similar problem with its mobile-targeted Pentium M chip, which runs at lower clock speeds than its Pentium 4 Mobile chip, while often offering better performance and battery life. As a result, the chip's sales have been lower than some analysts expected.
In an attempt to clear up this confusion, Pentium M chips will now carry the higher 700-series moniker, while faster clock-speed Pentium 4 Mobile CPUs will make up the 500 series. As on the desktop, mobile Celeron products will carry the 300-series brand.
Intel considered switching the naming emphasis from clock speeds to processor numbers before launching the Centrino platform in March 2003, but opted against it. However, Intel executives admit that consumers might find switching over to the new naming convention now a bit hard to follow, at least at first.
"You can expect to see some level of confusion," said Rob Crooke, vice president of the desktop platforms group. "The new products that come out will have the processor number, and the existing products will keep their current names." But since both products will still clearly carry the processor's clock speeds and other attributes, it won't be that difficult to compare, he said.
March 22, 2004 7:20 am ET
Intel Corp. is shifting the focus of its processor names away from megahertz. After years of driving CPU sales by promoting faster clock speeds as a measure of better performance, the chip giant on Friday announced a new processor naming scheme.
All future Intel desktop and mobile chips will receive a processor series number -- 300, 500, or 700 -- based on the chip's specific brand family. For example, on the desktop side, new Celeron chips will be the 300 series, Pentium 4s the 500 series, and the P4 Extreme Editions the 700 series. Within each series, the company will further differentiate each chip based upon its architecture, clock speed, frontside bus, cache, and other technologies.
The new naming scheme is designed to help buyers differentiate between chips based upon all of their features, not just clock speed, said Don MacDonald, vice president of Intel's sales and marketing group during a low-key press event announcing the plan. That's because megahertz is no longer the best way to pick the right processor for a specific computing job.
"A single metric cannot define everyone's measure of goodness," he said.
The numbers aren't indicative of any level of performance, "unless you redefine what performance means," MacDonald explained. "It's the sum of processor features. The focus on gigahertz isn't helpful to consumers anymore."
Mobile Muddle
Intel competitor Advanced Micro Devices Inc. introduced a processor model numbering scheme based on performance testing several years ago. AMD made the change when Intel's Pentium 4 processor began to outrun its Athlon XP chips in terms of clock speed, if not always benchmark scores.
Intel has encountered a similar problem with its mobile-targeted Pentium M chip, which runs at lower clock speeds than its Pentium 4 Mobile chip, while often offering better performance and battery life. As a result, the chip's sales have been lower than some analysts expected.
In an attempt to clear up this confusion, Pentium M chips will now carry the higher 700-series moniker, while faster clock-speed Pentium 4 Mobile CPUs will make up the 500 series. As on the desktop, mobile Celeron products will carry the 300-series brand.
Intel considered switching the naming emphasis from clock speeds to processor numbers before launching the Centrino platform in March 2003, but opted against it. However, Intel executives admit that consumers might find switching over to the new naming convention now a bit hard to follow, at least at first.
"You can expect to see some level of confusion," said Rob Crooke, vice president of the desktop platforms group. "The new products that come out will have the processor number, and the existing products will keep their current names." But since both products will still clearly carry the processor's clock speeds and other attributes, it won't be that difficult to compare, he said.
