Intel rebrands again: meet Core i3 and Core i5

[nemowolf]

From Ars Technica:

If you think it's hard to create whole market segments by dreaming up ways to differentiate your products from one another so that you can charge more for some of them, try being tasked with selling the resulting jumble to consumers. My heart bleeds for Intel marketing, but only just a tiny bit.

huh ... okay im more confused with Intel processors now then i have ever been.

[RicheemxX]

From Intel

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 spanning multiple levels: Intel Core i3 processor, Intel Core i5 processor, and Intel Core i7 processors.

Their goal is to cut out all the core 2 and afaik the core duo line and make it easier to understand. Core i3 for entry level, core i5 for midrange and core i7 for high end. Of course that really won't help things much since retailers will still be selling the core 2's but the goal is to eventually phase those away.

[nemowolf]

That i understand ... this i dont.

Intel is transitioning the "Centrino" brand from mobile platforms to wireless networking products. It's keeping the Pentium brand for very low-end platforms and Atom for mobile.

The other big part of the rebranding is a new stars rating. Five-star processors will have the most performance and features, and one-star processor will have the least. This isn't such a great idea, because, who really wants to buy a "one-star" anything?

I dont understand why they are using the same name for entirely different purposes. Everyone is going to get confused when asking for something and they keep making changes. Ehh ... I am not buying much new hardware anytime soon so i shouldn't complain just yet.

[ShyguyXPC]

LOL, hey, I suppose with the so called "threat" on the horizon with nvidia, they have to compete with them some how (confusing naming schemes and rehash of old product lines with new names)


Ok, now maybe I missed it, but this is the first time I've heard of Core i3... so which CPU's are they stuffing into this product line? I was under the impression everything on Socket 1066 was to be an i5... or is these just a rebranding of the current generation Socket 775 chips (dual and quad) till they're eventually phased out?

[nemowolf]

LOL, hey, I suppose with the so called "threat" on the horizon with nvidia, they have to compete with them some how (confusing naming schemes and rehash of old product lines with new names)


Ok, now maybe I missed it, but this is the first time I've heard of Core i3... so which CPU's are they stuffing into this product line? I was under the impression everything on Socket 1066 was to be an i5... or is these just a rebranding of the current generation Socket 775 chips (dual and quad) till they're eventually phased out?

I think that the i3 is going to have the Socket 1066 but have slower clocks and less onboard memory? vPro disabled too.

[cksboy15]

Ok, now maybe I missed it, but this is the first time I've heard of Core i3... so which CPU's are they stuffing into this product line?

Celeron?

[KarmaKiller]

I think that the i3 is going to have the Socket 1066 but have slower clocks and less onboard memory? vPro disabled too.

Only the Core i7 is allowed to run in a LGA-1366 socket, however there will be LGA-1156 i7, i5 and i3CPUs . The number of memory channels and the presence of a QPI link does not determine branding. In other words, Lynnfield will be both a Core i7 and a Core i5 depending on the SKU.

The LGA-1156 Core i7s will be the 8xx series, while the LGA-1366 i7s will be the 9xx series. The i5s will be the 6xx series and the i3s will be the 5xx series.

Four cores and HT enabled with turbo mode yields you a Core i7 on the desktop. If you only have support for up to 4 threads then you've got a Core i5; take away turbo and you have a Core i3.

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[KarmaKiller]

Intel may rebadge existing Wolfdale, Yorkfield, and Penryn Mobile chips into Core i3
As bizarre as it seems, it looks like existing Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors are bound for a new name tag, under Core i3. The processors will form Intel's value offerings, since they compare to the lower-end derivatives of the Nehalem architecture. At this point in time, we don't know if (and don't expect) higher-end Wolfdale and Yorkfield models to make it to this series, but rather the lower-end Core 2 Duo E7000, E8000, Core 2 Quad Q8000, Q9x00, etc. to do so, as they make the most market sense with Nehalem and Westmere derivatives higher up the order. The processors will continue to be driven by existing chipsets by Intel, which include members of Intel 3-series and 4-series.

Arrandale as Core i3, Clarkdale as Core i5
Intel thinks its desktop dual-core Westmere derivative Clarkdale is faster and more capable than its mobile cousin Arrandale. This could be because traditionally, mobile CPUs trade off clock-speeds for energy efficiency, and make up to an extant with large caches. The Clarksfield quad-core mobile chip will get the Core i7 marker. It will come in two distinct flavours, with L3 cache sizes of 6 MB and 8 MB.

Lynnfield in Core i5 and Core i7
This comes as no surprise since Intel's marketing heads had already made it clear that Lynnfield would span across two brand markers. The determining factors, seem to be HyperThreading technology, and perhaps clock speeds. The Core i7 Lynnfield chip has HyperThreading technology available as a feature, and may have higher clock-speeds. The first wave of Lynnfield chips that release in Q3 2009, will be only of the Core i5 kind, while the performance Core i7 ones will follow months later, in Q1 2010.

Say hello to Core i9
Intel's upcoming flagship client processor, codenamed Gulftown will get the higher Core i9 marker. This 6-core chip will have every performance enhancing feature in the book available, including a total thread count of 12, and a 50% increase in L3 cache over Bloomfield, at 12 MB. It will retain compatibility with the existing LGA-1366 socket, and X58 chipset, and will be available in Q1 2010.

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me thinks it's about to get confusing..

[ShyguyXPC]

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WTF? now they changed it from 1066 to 1166? all of what I was reading for the last year has been saying 1066...

was everyone labeling stuff wrong or did intel change the pin count for better performance or what?

[ShyguyXPC]

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me thinks it's about to get confusing..

this is just stupid, from a confused consumer standpoint (from screwing over consumers and gaining their hard earned money selling a "new" CPU to them when its nothing more than an old one, a la Nvidia methods, it makes sense...), why can't they just leave the existing S775 CPU's as is, now there will be Socket 775 Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quads, as well as Core i3's that will for all intents and purposes be the same damn things? like with Nvidia an the 8800GT vs 9800GT, G92 8800GTS vs 9800GTX, 9800GTX+ vs GTS 250, GT100/120/130 vs their older model names, etc etc...

I can understand some of the newer chips being released being named i3, like the 32nm Westmere chip, but the others?


also WTF is up with the whole i7 line up, I thought Intel stated that i7 will be exclusively for the Socket 1366 platform, as I look at that list I see 1156, mPGA-989 (this I could understand for mobile platforms, but why 1156?)

and whats the deal with 1156 and 1155 on i5's? can't they decide on one socket design or the other? oh wait, nevermind, lets add more confusion to the lineup...

silly me, I forgot


(though, time to start putting aside some cash for 32nm Gulftown , though would be nice to know what clock speeds it'll be released in, and potential price range before hand)

[KarmaKiller]

I've always read it was going to be socket 1156. And as far as the 1155 and 1156, it's kind of like AMD's 939 and 940. One is going to be geared towards servers and such, the other is gonna be desktop bound.
I admit the rebranding just adds confusion, IDK what they're thinking.

[EXreaction]

1155 is probably a typo.


How is this confusing at all?

Celeron, Pentium, Core 2, Core i7
Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, Core i9

They are changing to a single naming scheme across the board with the older stuff becoming Core i3, the new i5 which is the same thing as the i7 except with dual channel instead of triple channel, and then they are adding the Core i9, which will be basically the Extreme Edition of the i7.

Not at all like nVidia where they rebrand old products and sell them as new "high end" products. They are simply renaming the old ones to i3 (the low end) to have a single naming scheme. Had they tried releasing the old cpu's (Core 2/Pentium D) as i7's, or i5's, that would be completely different (which is what nVidia did).

They are really only introducing one new line, the i5, which we've known about for over a year now.

[KarmaKiller]

In a recent blog post, the Santa Clara, California-based Intel has explained its latest branding strategy for its current and upcoming products, confirming the launch of the much anticipated Core i5 and the new Core i3 series of processors. According to the world's leading chip maker, customers should expect a simpler branding strategy, focusing on the company's successful Core brand. The upcoming solutions will be designed for the entry-level, mid-level and high-level markets, each of the new brands addressing a new segment.

According to a recent blog post by Intel's Bill Calder, the chip maker is moving to a simpler marketing strategy, as it wants its customers to know exactly what they are buying. This is why the upcoming products will be part of three new families, namely the Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7. As for the manufacturer's other non-Core products, Intel says that the Celeron will remain for entry-level computing at affordable price points, Pentium for basic computing and Atom for new devices, ranging from netbooks to smartphones.

The new strategy follows in the footsteps of the company's recently launched ad campaign, “Sponsors of Tomorrow,” which is aimed to provide users with a better perspective of what Intel has to offer. However, according to Bill Cader's blog post, the new Core i3 and Core i5 names are just modifiers and not brands. “For example, upcoming processors such as Lynnfield (desktop) will carry the Intel Core brand, but will be available as either Intel Core i5 or Intel Core i7 depending upon the feature set and capability. Clarksfield (mobile) will have the Intel Core i7 name,” Cader said in his blog post.

Centrino will be phased out from Intel's processor family as early as next year. However, the company will maintain the Celeron brand for its other products, including Wi-Fi and WiMAX. In addition, the vPro technology will be maintained, as it will be available on Intel's upcoming business parts, like Core i5 vPro and Core i7 vPro.

Fudzilla - Intel explains Core i3, i5, i7 branding