Intel "Nehalem" to be named "Core i7"

[fiercetiger224]

It's official now guys. Source: FiringSquad / Intel

It's official, Intel's next-generation Nehalem CPU now has a name. Today Intel announced that the first Nehalem processors would be branded "Core i7", with more Core variants to follow. Here is the PR:

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 11, 2008 – Intel Corporation announced today that desktop processors based on the company’s upcoming new microarchitecture (codenamed “Nehalem”) will be formally branded “Intel® Core™ processor.” The first products in this new family of processors, including an “Extreme Edition” version, will carry an “i7” identifier and will be formally branded as “Intel® Core™ i7 processor.” This is the first of several new identifiers to come as different products launch over the next year.

Products based on the new microarchitecture will deliver high performance and energy efficiency. This "best of both worlds" approach is expected to extend Intel’s processor leadership in future mobile, desktop and server market segments.

“The Core name is and will be our flagship PC processor brand going forward,” said Sean Maloney, Intel Corporation executive vice president and general manager, Sales and marketing Group. “Expect Intel to focus even more marketing resources around that name and the Core i7 products starting now.”

The Intel Core processor brand name has gained broad awareness, preference, and market momentum over the past several years. The Intel Core name remains the logical choice for Intel’s latest family of processors. The Intel Core i7 processor brand logo will be available for high-performance desktop PCs with a separate black logo for Intel’s highest-end “Extreme Edition.” Intel will include processor model numbers to differentiate each chip.

Initial products based on this microarchitecture are expected to be in production in the fourth quarter of this year. These processors will feature Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology, also known as simultaneous multi-threading, and are capable of handling eight software “threads” on four processor cores.

When we asked Intel what the "i7" identifier stood for, we received the following response: "The modifier is simply a means of separating the new and improved high-end desktop processor brand from other existing processor brands and from future brands, which will be announced later. It represents a collection of factors and highlights unique features including performance and other features."

Hmm...Interesting. So apparently the "i7" is only a part of other existing brands...Whatever that means.

 

[reallynotnick]

As long as they are putting more effort into developing better chips instead of wasting it on actually coming up with a good name, then I don't care.

 

[nanofrog]

As long as they are putting more effort into developing better chips instead of wasting it on actually coming up with a good name, then I don't care.

Agreed.

 

[iMacmatician]

When we asked Intel what the "i7" identifier stood for, we received the following response: "The modifier is simply a means of separating the new and improved high-end desktop processor brand from other existing processor brands and from future brands, which will be announced later. It represents a collection of factors and highlights unique features including performance and other features."

Hmm...Interesting. So apparently the "i7" is only a part of other existing brands...Whatever that means.

Reminds me of GPU nomenclature.

NVIDIA: 9300M 9500M 9600M 9700M 9800M
ATI: HD 3470 HD 3650 HD 3850

Intel Core: i3 i5 i6 i7 i8 or e7 (essential) m7 (mainstream) i7 (Intel) x7 (Xeon) or e3 m5 m6 i7 x8?

I suppose then we'd have implicit core count differentiation.

And what would happen for Sandy Bridge and Haswell? j7 and k7?

 

[nanofrog]

Reminds me of GPU nomenclature.

NVIDIA: 9300M 9500M 9600M 9700M 9800M
ATI: HD 3470 HD 3650 HD 3850

Intel Core: i3 i5 i6 i7 i8 or e7 (essential) m7 (mainstream) i7 (Intel) x7 (Xeon) or e3 m5 m6 i7 x8?

I suppose then we'd have implicit core count differentiation.

And what would happen for Sandy Bridge and Haswell? j7 and k7?

Great. Now we all need 'secret decoder rings' to figure out which chip is which.

 

[jellomizer]

I am happy that it is going back to a number scheme.
Pentium = 586 was rough enough but Pent = 5 it was ok then the Pentium 2... Then M and v... just made it so much more confusing. I like the simplicy of knowing if I have an update system or not. As I was using PowerPC macs for a few years I lost all track of the number scheme.

 

[Gosh]

........ and the moral of this story is: if you already have a really good and familiar name for a product - enhance it don't change it or it will seriously damage your profits.

Pentium was an uber name and if (ahem) i7 was Pentium Duo 3 then that would make those Pentium, Pentium Duo and Duo 2 owners think "well maybe I should upgrade"! Just like PowerPC G3, G4, G5 etc, etc!

As it is I think an awful lot of people are gonna be thinking "is this i7 faster than a Centrino"?

People have enough to worry about: the credit crunch, house prices, fuel, utility bills, job security, Russian tanks in Georgia - don't make life harder than it already is!

 

[Axemantitan]

Some interesting benchmarks were posted on the Wikipedia article:

A 2.93 GHz Nehalem "Bloomfield" system has been used to run a 3DMark Vantage benchmark and gave a CPU score of 17,966. The 2.66 GHz variant scores 16,294. A 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo E6600 scores 4,300.

So the performance is over 4 times as fast as a Core 2 Duo.