Blogs Intel should simplify its CPU naming policy

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2012/11/29/intel-should-change-its-cpu-naming-policy/

 

And it is not even about naming either, they should simply shrink their product line. Not having the same core CPU but one with VT-D and one without.

 

Surely if a non-gamer friend wants a laptop, you tell them to buy the one with the nicest display, keyboard and battery life? CPU performance is moot as soon as you put an SSD in it!

 

i've always been fond of the Pentium name. It reminds of the P3 and P4 days and the speed war going on between AMD and Intel.

This speed war was picked up by mainstream media and the Pentium name was thrusted into average joes pc vocabulary and resulting in todays PC world mess. Intel should have binned Celeron and Pentium when they switched to the core i series. An i1 and i2 would have done the job and average joe responds well to numbers.....

 

I can honestly say that Intel have me completely lost with there CPU's, my last intel chip was a q6600 and back then I could follow what was going on pretty easily. Now there are 3 different sockets (I think) and then you have core i3, i5 and i7 which from what i've seen all have similar performance depending on model numbers.

I may sound like I don't know what i'm talking about here - which is because I don't !

 

Forget ordinary consumers, it's a confusing scheme for CS students too! Obviously, being a bit-techer I know the ins and outs of each architecture, but even otherwise knowledgeable people are stumped by the naming scheme. Here's an example of a conversation I had with a friend:

 

i think change naming convention to 1234etc... and if they cant... just add the date to whatever name they have... 2011 edition and 2012 edition... maybe add month if there is more than one a year.. ppl can then just by that, the latest to older and see price difference.

 

"Fast Chip", "Faster Chip" and "Even Faster Chip" (or F, F+ and F++)?

 

You can imagine the hyperbole after a few years of that naming convention, especially if AMD got in on it...

 

Maybe I am a cynic but what motivation would Intel have for changing the naming convention if the confusion is causing joe public to buy all the old stock of crappy Pentium chips in desktops/laptops?

 

TBH compared to Nvidia's mobile GPU line up, Intels CPU naming scheme is child's play.

 

The naming conventions clearly help them to shift old stock from the shelves. Its probably doing exactly what it was designed to do - confuse.

 

intel buster, intel buster-buster, intel buster-buster-buster-2000 baby!

 

and we are not even talking about the chipsets. Right now Intel offers, for LGA1155 only :

- B75
- P67, P75
- H61, H67, H77
- Q77
- Z68, Z75, Z77, Z78

it's far too many chipsets ... how many, even among us, know the exact differences between all those ?

 

you evil man bringing this up....

 

Easy, first of all Z78 doesn't exist (at least, not yet). Ignore the others and go for Z77

 

Oh yeaaaaaaah xD .... just (re)mentioned it because I'm asked twice a day by friends who are lost with Intel chipsets. They are aware of celeron < pentium < i3 < i5 < i7 .... but when it comes to chipsets ....

Oops, my bad .... missed copy / paste

 

Is it more complex than understanding all the options of engines in a car? We have displacement, cylinder count and layout, turbo/supercharging, petrol/diesel/gas/hybrid/electric/..., number of gear ratios and their spread, manual/automatic,....

Seems just as complex to me and people seem to be able to make choices that suit them when buying a car. Why is this (cpu lines and models) any harder?

Or is it that we still seem to be treating PCs as somehow different, as something people shouldn't have to expend effort learning about? Maybe it's about time people invested some time and effort to understand something that's as big a part of their lives as their cars.

 

I think that most people only looks at this when bying a car :

- overall look
- Price
- horse power
- consumption
- luggage compartment size

eventually the amount of seats when more than 2 childrens.