As Intel first hinted at in late April, Intel is embarking on a journey to redefine its client processor brand. This is the biggest change in the company’s past 15 years. The tech giant, which has already made headlines by changing the retail packaging of its premium desktop chips such as the Core i9-11900K and Core i9-12900K, has introduced a new naming scheme across its client processors, marking a transformative phase of its client roadmap. Aim to suggest.
This change is expected to start in the second half of this year when Intel launches its highly anticipated Meteor Lake CPUs. Meteor Lake represents a major breakthrough for the company when it comes to manufacturing, architecture and design, and seems to prompt the need for a new product naming convention.
The most significant changes include removing the “i” from the naming scheme and choosing a simpler Core 3, 5, and 7 branding structure for Intel’s mainstream processors. Another notable thing, which is now officially confirmed, is that Intel is splitting off the Core brand a bit and using the new Ultra name to put premium his client products in their own category. . Ultra chips signify a higher performance tier and target market for components, and will be the only place Intel uses the top-of-the-line Core 9 (formerly i9) brand.
Intel: A Brief History of the Core i Series
The Core i series debuted nearly 15 years ago in 2008, marking the end of the first Core/Core 2 era and ushering in a new dawn for Intel’s client product line. The change coincided with the release of his 45 nm manufacturing process by Nehalem architecture and targeted products such as Celeron, Pentium Core and Xeon brand. Most recently in 2020, Intel initiated a more comprehensive overhaul of its corporate identity to update the message from his 50-year-old company. Its influence continues to spread throughout the company today.
This refresh of Intel’s branding includes the introduction of new trademarks and logos featuring cleaner typography and a simplified geometric background with a bright blue color scheme. As part of this process, Intel previously said goodbye to long-established low-cost CPU brands Pentium and Celeron. These rebrandings were undoubtedly intended to convey a desire to change, surpass and consolidate their position in emerging markets.
The move from the old Core Duo brand to the Core i3 series marked the dawn of Intel’s latest low-end processor brand, while the rest of the lineup saw a quantitative price jump to the Core i5 (mid-range) and Core i7 series. Time was reserved for Intel’s flagship processors.
Going Forward: De-emphasizing Generational Branding
As previously mentioned, this rebranding is Intel’s biggest in the last 15 years. Some naming schemes can be confusing and messy (Oh Zeon), Intel still wants to be clear enough about their client processors. This is great timing. Because the hardware behind them is getting pretty complex with the transitional chiplet based Meteor Lake and a mix of dies built on the Intel 4 process and dies built by rival supplier TSMC.
First and foremost, under the new branding system, Intel will be phasing out major generational brands. Over the past decade or more, we’ve seen Intel ramp up to core generations such as 4th Gen Cores, 9th Gen Cores, and 13th Gen Cores. Often this was placed before the processor description (especially on his OEM devices). ), and descriptions such as “Intel 11th Generation Core i3” are displayed.
Under Intel’s new rebranding, processor generation is de-emphasized, but not eliminated entirely. The processor model number itself starts with the generation as it does today, but that’s the only consistent generation designation. Generation as a leading indicator will be abolished.
At this time, I’m not sure where Intel will start with their latest numbering system. It’s quite possible that Intel will continue where it left off and make the next part 14th generation (hence the 14xxx model number), it is highly likely that Intel will use this as an opportunity to reset the generation number. The benchmark data leak that prompted Intel to first comment on the matter back in April unsurprisingly included a reference to his 1003H chip.
Mainstream Intel Core 3, Core 5, and Core 7: Removing the Iconic ‘i’
As part of the new rebranding, Intel will drop the “i” from its processor tiering system for its client processors, starting with Meteor Lake and other products on its upcoming roadmap. This means that the naming structure for Core i3, i5, and i7 becomes Core 3, 5, and 7, effectively removing the name “i” in the naming structure.
So, with the new naming convention, a chip like Core i5 13600 would be named like Core 5 13600. This isn’t a drastic name change, but it’s important because the ‘i’ has been the processor’s iconic nickname for the past 15 years.
It’s worth noting here that this Core branded tier is what Intel considers its “mainstream” processors. Core 9 is not covered in any way. That layer is reserved for Intel’s premium “Ultra” brand.
Intel Core Ultra: Reserved for premium chips – Core Ultra 5, Ultra 7 and Ultra 9
Intel is also officially splitting its premium client chips into its own sub-brand of sorts, giving it a new Ultra label. Intel’s Core Ultra brand is reserved for the company’s “premium” processors, but the company hasn’t defined exactly what that means in advance. So it remains to be seen how this will fit into the Meteor Lake generation of processors. We wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised to see this replace (or work alongside) Intel’s traditional K/KS series SKUs, albeit on desktops.
Reading between the lines here, it’s worth noting that unlike Intel’s slide for mainstream processors, which says “Starting with Meteor Lake,” Intel’s Ultra changes are “from 2H 2023.” Interesting. There’s still a lot of ambiguity in Intel’s client chip roadmap when it comes to next year’s desktop processor plans and how Meteor Lake fits (or might not) fit into it. So this slight difference in when the branding started indicates that Intel has no intention of launching high-end Meteor Lake desktop processors, which in turn opens the door to something like a Raptor Lake refresh. There is a nature.
Finally, following Intel’s future numbering scheme for processors, the processor model number will follow the word “processor” for both mainstream and ultra chips. Intel’s example is “Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor” [model number]This doesn’t look much like the current structure, but the word “Ultra” is there just in case. This is to indicate the processor’s target market, similar to how Intel used the name Extreme for Core X. series processor.
Intel’s Meteor Lake Coming in 2H 2023
The move to new branding and the effective removal of the “i” from the aforementioned branding is interesting. Processor sales have been declining in recent years, but the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and a general economic downturn have made things worse. Whether these new changes are designed to drive increased sales, such as selling more chips, or whether they represent a massive generational shift in how Intel makes processors. I don’t know yet. Regarding both the chiplet and his EUV-enabled Intel 4 process.
With Meteor Lake not expected to take off until late 2023 for mobiles and late 2024 (if at all) for desktop chips, Intel’s latest Intel 4 process is expected to hit Intel’s represents a major shift in processor technology for the . Meteor Lake uses EUV lithography in the manufacturing process, such as using a similar approach using both performance (P) and efficiency (E) cores, as seen in both Alder Lake (12th Gen). It is the first product in Intel’s arsenal to use. and current Raptor Lake (13th Gen) processors.
Without going too deep into the core of Meteor Lake and the advancements that Intel 4 and TSMC’s proprietary process bring, you can find our in-depth coverage of Intel’s upcoming Meteor Lake processors below.
