Intel launches new chip logos, rating system
Intel has revamped its processor badging and rating system. Consumers are the main target, though business systems will get new badging too.
The new badges include a die (the chip minus the packaging) accent in the upper right hand corner, a prominent main brand (e.g., "Core"), and the modifier (e.g., "i7").
Intel has also instituted a star system that rates chips from five stars (best performance in class) to one star (lowest performance). "So when a consumer goes into a Best Buy store they can distinguish between Centrino, Core, Celeron, Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad," said Intel spokesman Bill Calder.
That may be a little easier said than done, however. Some consumers (but not including "tech savvy" Giampaolo, of course) will still need help from the sales person to decipher the badging. A daunting challenge in the case of consumer laptops, which are typically plastered with a hodgepodge of stickers from Intel, Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, AMD's ATI graphics chip unit, and other companies.
Intel is in the process of moving to a "pretty aggressive brand simplification plan," Calder said. "When we launched Core i7, we said we're moving to a single primary client brand, which is Core. We're moving in that direction," he said.
The Atom processor will not get a modifier. In the future, the Nehalem server processor, currently branded only as "Xeon" with a letter and number suffix, may also get new branding to make it more readily identifiable as part of the Nehalem architecture like its desktop sibling the Core i7, Calder said.
New Intel processor badges with "die" accent
(Credit: Intel)
Intel's new star rating system
(Credit: Intel)
Brooke Crothers has been an editor at large at CNET News, an analyst at IDC Japan, and an editor at The Asian Wall Street Journal Weekly, among other endeavors, including co-manager of an after-school math-and-reading center. He writes for the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
Then, at some point, Gianpaolo will have to look at a 3D cube where the 3rd dimension will be the GPU of the graphics card used to run Aero or whatever new boondoggle MS comes up with. The average consumer will then have to look at this new version of a Rubik's cube to figure out what to buy.
Brilliant!
Maybe separating the Intel Logo from the model would help. This method seems endlessly confusing without more consumer education than may be possible, given the nature and channels of distribution.
Confusing the brand's quality image with "maybe worth a little less" thinking just doesn't "compute" in my mind.
- by Raabscuttle April 7, 2009 11:17 AM PDT
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(20 Comments)http://www.geeks.com/techtips/2009/techtips-05APR09.htm
"Some Intel based computers may also have a Centrino sticker of some sort, but the Centrino is not a processor, it is a marketing gimmick that Intel came up with to sell more parts. Centrino simply means that the computer has the parts needed to get the sticker (usually a type of Intel processor, an Intel motherboard chipset and an Intel wireless chipset ? different versions of the Centrino have different requirements that they need to meet to get the Centrino sticker). "