Intel spells out Core i3, i5, i7 branding
Updated at 12:15 p.m. PDT: adding Centrino and Deborah Conrad discussions.
Intel has spelled out its branding for the upcoming Core series of processors including the "Lynnfield" and "Clarksfield" chips. The chipmaker also said that "Centrino" will be phased out as a PC brand.
In a post Wednesday on Intel's Web site, spokesman Bill Calder wrote that the branding will be "simplified into entry-level (Intel Core i3), mid-level (Intel Core i5), and high-level (Intel Core i7)."
Calder added that it is "important to note that these are not brands but modifiers to the Intel Core brand that signal different features and benefits."
The upcoming Lynnfield chip (desktop) will be available as either Intel Core i5 or Intel Core i7 depending upon the feature set and capability, Calder wrote. Clarksfield (mobile) will have the Intel Core i7 name.
Deborah Conrad, vice president and director of corporate marketing at Intel, talks about new branding strategy via video on Intel Web site
Arrandale (32-nanometer mobile) will appear as the Core i3 but will ultimately span the Core brand to include Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7. Clarkdale (32-nanometer desktop) will be available under the Core i3 and Intel Core i5 brands, Calder said.
The widely-used Centrino moniker will be phased out as a PC brand, according to Calder. Centrino "will be used as a name for Wi-Fi and WiMAX products" and "still be in market on mobile PCs into next year," he said. But eventually will be discontinued.
"In the back half of this year you'll begin to see Core i5 and more Core i7s coming to market. Then by the first part of next year you'll begin to see Core i3, and i5, i7," said Deborah Conrad, vice president and director of corporate marketing at Intel, speaking in a video posted on Intel's Web site. "Then the old names will get retired as those products get phased out," she said.
Intel also disclosed other branding. "We will still have Celeron for entry-level computing at affordable price points, Pentium for basic computing, and of course the Intel Atom processor for all these new devices ranging from netbooks to smartphones," according to the post. "For PC purchasing, think in terms of good-better-best with Celeron being good, Pentium better, and the Intel Core family representing the best we have to offer," he wrote.
"We are focusing our strategy around a primary 'hero' client brand which is Intel Core. Today the Intel Core brand has a mind boggling array of derivatives (such as Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad, etc). Over time those will go away and in its place will be a simplified family of Core processors," Calder wrote.
Calder continued: "This will be an evolutionary process taking place over time, and we acknowledge that multiple brands will be in the market next year including older ones, as we make the transition."
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. 
Furthermore, Intel has had similar naming schemes in the past. For example, they did E2x00 series, E4x00 series and the E6x00 series as a similar good, better, best scheme.
Honestly, I think Intel is wise to stop marketing processors by clock speed because change in architecture make such comparisons confusing. Since there is no one size fits all benchmark I don't see how Intel realistically eliminates all consumer confusion. That being said I think that their naming convention seems more decent to me. Provided that there is no overlap between the three categories in typical performance I think most customers will be able to correctly figure out the pecking order.
What the heck?
Why making it so complicated?
Keep it simple STUPID!
They should have:
- platform branding, such as Centrino for Laptop
- processor branding with frequency and that's it, such as Core 2 Duo 2.53, Core 2 Quad 3.06
- lastly a consistent rule...
It seems pretty simple to me. Core 2 Duo = dual core, Core 2 Quad = quad core! How does it get any simpler?
It's not clear to many that "Core 2" is a brand.
Not that i3, i5 and i7 are that much clearer, but these kind of naming techniques work for Mercedes, Lexus, IBM and Infinity (and didn't work for the former Pontiac), so why not for Intel?
Of course, calling one chip an i5 and another and i7 even though they are the same other than speed, well that is stupid.
Though I guess it helps people like Apple and Dell, when you do a configure to order system, because you can easily explain "upgrade to the Core i7 for increased performance". Since Core i7 will include mobile chips, it also allows companies to differentiate their product lines that way. For example, Apple "Pro" macbooks could have i5s standard with a CTO option for the i7s, while the base macbook has an i3s.
If anything, Core i3 might be single core, Core i5 will be dual core, and Core i7 will be quad core, but they might screw that up, too.
I am asking from the view-point of what I consider to be an average consumer going into Best-Buy, Wal-Mart or the like and seeing that pretty HP box this coming Holiday season and Intel i7 on the box. Is it really enough for the average shopper to know what they are getting? When Crysis 5 comes out in the next couple of years and the box says recommended minimum specification Core i7, does it in fact really mean the i7 based on one of the architectures that is really the high performance chip?
How will Core i7 575 compare with Core i3 970?
How about Core i5 760 vs Core i7 550?
Maybe they should be named the Core i 700 series, Core i 500 series, etc or even Core i 7000, Core i 5000, Core i 3000 series.
Consumers have long known that. One day, an OEM will figure that out and blow the other OEMs out of the water. Then and only then will Intel follow suit.
(I can't tell you when that day will be. But, it will be many years before Microsoft figures that out! Lets see -- is it 5 or 6 versions of Windows 7 due out this fall?)
Brand naming issues started with viiv.
OMG! What a disaster that was! I still recall the Intel rep explicitly having to note (at a Channel Conference) that it is pronounced "Vive" (rhymes with "five") not "veeve" (rhymes with "peeve"). To this day, I still don't know what viiv was supposed to be. You don't see that anymore.
As someone commented above -- ever since that guy was hired from Samsung (was it?) to head marketing, Intel has not been able to come up with successful branding scheme.
What ever his name is, he absolutely sucks at his job!!!
i3 = 2 cores with 1 thread per core.
i5 = 4 cores with 1 thread per core.
i7 = 4 cores with 2 threads per core. (OS sees it as 8 cores)
i9 = 6 cores with 2 threads per core. (OS sees it as 12 cores) *will not be out till first half of 2010.*
- by nevets1970-1 October 7, 2009 7:26 PM PDT
- I've been doing a lot of research trying to decide how to spend my money when I upgrade to the new i-series.
- Reply to this comment
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(23 Comments)troop85 nailed it: although intel will not admitt to having the i9 yet.
My only problem with intel's new line is this. How many cores do you really need? They haven't had a major increase in core speed in years. Running multiple programs at one time is awesome, but how about getting them done faster? Find a way to run antivirus programs in 5 minutes instead of half an hour.
Just a thought.