Intel To Change The Product Name, Again

In the newest Intel roadmaps, Intel indicated it would change their product naming schemes, again. For those who thought the three digit product naming system wouldn't last; well, it didn't. Less than 18 months ago Intel changed the way new CPUs would be named by replacing the clock rate with a three digit product name instead. We just got briefed on the newest wave of things to come at Intel.

The new product naming scheme for some mobility processors will change to a five character alphanumeric product name based on the watt usage and general performance. All new Mobility product names will start with one of the following letters:

• E: TDP >50W
• T: TDP 25W to 49W
• L: TDP 15W to 24W
• U: TDP <14W

The next four digits after the TDP estimate will denote the CPU's processor family and performance. For example, T1700 will denote a higher echelon 25-49W Yonah chip. T2700 would denote a high performance Merom processor.

Corresponding features that are added into later Yonah or Merom cores will be denoted in the last two digits of the product name. Although the roadmaps did not indicate this, our sources claimed that two versions of a T1500 - one with VT and one without - might be denoted by a change in the last digit of the product name.

Intel's name scheme will change on all new mobility processors, but our sources close to the roadmap indicate that all Intel processors will get a similar facelift about the same time we expect Conroe, similar to the brand-wide shift of April 2004. Existing mobility chips (Dothan, Banias), will not change. Furthermore, the roadmap also revealed that single core Yonah chips will not have a letter prefix corresponding to the wattage, but this might have just been an idiosyncrasy of the roadmap. Single core M chips based on Yonah will continue to use the three digit nomenclature, however.

Server & Desktop

Although Intel's future server and desktop processors will also get a single letter prefix, for now they will just switch to four digits. Below is a quick rundown of the new 65nm Dempsey Intel processors:

• Xeon MP 7041: 3.0GHz 800FSB
• Xeon MP 7040: 3.0GHz 667FSB
• Xeon MP 7030: 2.8GHz 800FSB
• Xeon MP 7020: 2.66GHz 667FSB
• Xeon 5070: 3.46GHz, 130W
• Xeon 5063: 3.2GHz, 95W
• Xeon 5060: 3.2GHz, 130W
• Xeon 5050: 3.0GHz, 95W
• Xeon 5040: 2.83GHz, 95W
• Xeon 5030: 2.66GHz, 95W
• Xeon 5020: 2.5GHz, 95W