Intel has been on a roll these past few weeks with future product announcements ranging from Larrabee to System on Chips. They announced today that desktop processors based on the company’s upcoming new micro-architecture, the processor family formerly known as Nehalem, would carry the “Intel Core Processor” nomenclature. Considering the success of the Core series, this does not come as a surprise to us. However, the i7 designation has us wondering what the next series in the Core family will be called since i8 leads to all sorts of phrase variations. Without further adieu, here is the official press release from Intel.
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 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 micro-architecture 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 (introduced in the P4 series), and are capable of handling eight software “threads” on four processor cores.
We expect the "i7" designation to first appear on the Bloomfield series of chips with the blue logo addressing the bottom level speed bins. The black logo addresses the top speed bin that will be marketed as an Extreme Edition processor, probably with an extreme price to go along with it.
The mobile and entry level derivatives of Nehalem should be launched in the second half of next year although the brand names for these products could differ from the "i7" theme.
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foolsgambit11 - Thursday, August 14, 2008 - link
Disagree. While there may be philosophical similarities in all of the chips under '6', I wouldn't group them in a single iteration. If you trust Wikipedia - I know, I know, - you'd have to argue that NetBurst = P7 (which makes sense, since that's about the same time as the release of AMD's K7 Athlon). So then, the Core series microarchitecture would P8. Which also makes sense, since, while it was developed with the Pentium M as a starting point, it also includes developments from NetBurst (e.g. HyperThreading). It represented a change in processing philosophy, and was built up on all preceding generations. (But maybe my opinions on this are apocryphal....)So maybe i7 is actually P9?
ElFindo - Thursday, August 14, 2008 - link
Heh, I won't fault you for using wikipedia for some of my information came from there too, oddly enough most of the P6 line. And in one of my posts I believe I mentioned Netburst should have P7 (changed to P68) had they not given it to Itanium. As for Core being by itself I agree with that too because it is so different. I was merely collecting all the information I could find as to what others were saying was the reason for the naming. I don't honestly follow the architectures well enough to argue the nomenclature for myself (because frankly I'm too young to have seen them all). I just can't see it being attributed to 'Windows 7'.Crassus - Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - link
I though in the same direction, but looking at your list there's just *way* too much included in #6. i786 happened a long time ago, and for the sheer number of generations and chips Intel sold that were based on Netburst I don't think you can just throw it into a footnote. I'm working on a Northwood rig right now (work PC), and I'm not unhappy with it.ElFindo - Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - link
It's not that there is way too much included in #6, as all of those are listed to be part of the P6 architecture, but that theres so few in the other categories. That is the weird part. And I agree there is too much that happened in the Netburst era to just slough it aside but most places I look, thats the general gyst is almost pretend it didn't happen. As for how much is in #6 it could be a case of Intel resting on its laurels as many have accused it, and now nVidia in doing. AMD did grab the lead for a reason, and it was in that time frame, no innovation (except on derivatives) could be reflected in this. At any rate I just don't like when i search for P4 architecture and all that really came up was '80486' and a couple derivatives, and so much came in the later architectures. Looks funny.ElFindo - Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - link
Sorry for the double post, but had to mention:As Jarred mentions further down that the i7 is closer to the core then being a new iteration itself. So as to why some are lumping it as 'the 7th major architecture' is beyond me. Or maybe its as mundane as 'lucky 7s'. Your guess is as good as mine.
crystal clear - Monday, August 11, 2008 - link
The i7 indentifier will be a source of confusion for buyers.i7 is a product name of a Samsung camera
i7 is a TV channel
Then you have ipods,iphones from Apple.
I rhink Intel made a mistake by using "i" as an indentifier.
diakpoofaman - Monday, August 11, 2008 - link
Good thing 'core' was such an unique name!piroroadkill - Monday, August 11, 2008 - link
i7? Sounds fairly weak to me; but I guess they didn't want to get themselves stuck in simply numbering Core higher and higher.Still, I liked the Duo and Quad designations - also, what's with all the web 2.0 glossy shit all over the Intel logo?
Sunrise089 - Monday, August 11, 2008 - link
I cannot for the life of me understand why it isn't called Core3 Quad.They developed a perfectly clear system - Core/Pentium/Celleron for the line, a number for the processor generation, and a designator for the number of cores. It made the Core Duo -> Core2 Duo -> Core2 Quad progression perfectly understandable. Why they dump that system after one generation is beyond me.
cokbun - Monday, August 11, 2008 - link
they can name it core scrotum and they will sell like hot cakes