Pentium...Name's Not Dead

[Big B]

Well, there's a new Pentium chip in town. Yes, that's right, the Pentium E to be precise. Hot Hardware takes a the E2140 model for a spin, and seem pretty impressed.

As we mentioned before, this new Pentium utilizes Socket-775, which Intel has used for the past several years now. At first glance, this processor looks identical to the Core 2 Duo, which isn’t surprising as they are so closely linked to each other. A quick glance at the S-SPEC and surrounding codes shows the Pentium dual-core nomenclature, along with the clock speed (1.6 GHz), shared cache (1 MB), and bus speed (800 MHz). These processors should be compatible with all Socket-775 Core 2 ready motherboards on the market, although it's likely that many motherboards will require a BIOS update in order to see this new processor correctly. The chip did indeed work in all of the Socket-775 motherboards we attempted to use it in.

Oh, and they got the chip up to 2.9GHz with stock cooling...

 

[edijs]

well, in my opinion, simply and plainly the word "Pentium" sounds quite good :D

 

[megamaced]

Where are they trying to position the Pentium now? Somewhere between the Celeron & Core Duo?

 

[Big B]

The way the article put it, Intel is trying to position it as the new Celeron.

 

[megamaced]

Well that is not going to work because most people still assume the Pentium brand to be Intel's top dog. I think this will lead to confusion as to which processor is better and Intel could lose sales on their Core lines.

If I were Intel, I would drop the Pentium brand altogether and continue Celeron as the brand for their budget processor line.

 

[Big B]

Actually, the Pentium name is a little bit more recognized. It comes down to brand recognition, plus I can see more confusion if they have the Celeron and Core 2 brands running as the budget and performance chips, respectively.

Just imagine questions like this:
"Do you have a system with the Celeron 2 Duo?"
"I've heard good things about this dual core Celeron 2..."
"Celeron 2? Is that Intel's new CPU?"

You get the idea. People are less likely to ask for a Pentium 2, since Intel has officially released one. Intel did have a Core Duo and Core Solo line prior to the Core 2 Duo, but it was pretty much a mobile effort, so it didn't get as much press.

 

[Anti-Trend]

It's funny to me, since "Pentium" is a play on the i586 architecture of the original namesake. Pent = 5. Now we're using the i786 and i886 architectures, and they're still calling them after the 5th generation. :P

 

[megamaced]

Actually, the Pentium name is a little bit more recognized. It comes down to brand recognition

And I think this is where the problem lies. What is the Pentium brand recognised as? It's recognised as Intel's flagship processor. If anything, some people may assume the Core processors to be the budget line.

Maybe if Intel released a new brand for the budget line and stopped the silly BMW esk naming convention, people wouldn't get so confused. When I look at modern computers today, I can't tell which processor is better then the other. I look at processor speed, cache and bus speed. But even those specifications are not the be all and end all these days!

 

[rimmer]

When are AMD releasing their Phenom X2 and X4 chips?

 

[Big B]

And I think this is where the problem lies. What is the Pentium brand recognised as? It's recognised as Intel's flagship processor. If anything, some people may assume the Core processors to be the budget line.

Maybe if Intel released a new brand for the budget line and stopped the silly BMW esk naming convention, please wouldn't get so confused. When I look at modern computers today, I can't tell which processor is better then the other. I look at processor speed, cache and bus speed. But even those specifications are not the be all and end all these days!

I agree...they should start from scratch on the budget line, but is that what they're really aiming at? AMD's still planning to have the Sempron for awhile, and if you put the budget chips in front of a consumer, which one would they rather have? Sempron or Pentium.

Actually, I did run across some article, which the link escapes me, that mentioned the consumer confusion. I have no doubts the average consumer is going to be confused as hell. On the other hand, Intel is likely to milk as much out of the Pentium name as they can.

As for the naming convention, I think Intel had to do it because AMD was raping the Pentium brand (and possibly why it's there new budget chip, a stab in the dark here). AMD turned the focus away from the clock speed to the overall performance. We're getting away from the mindset that the CPU is the determining factor of a PC, and moving to model numbers that indicate performance within a CPU family, it helps. Obviously, yes, there's confusion, but there was confusion before.

Some of this is probably a catch 22, regardless of how things go.

 

[RHochstenbach]

In the old days it was easy to tell which CPU from Intel was new (Pentium I, II, III and IV). But now we got Pentium D, Pentium E, Core Duo, Core 2 Duo, Celeron and Centrino. Now you'll actually have to compare the specs of each CPU to find the best of them all.

 

[megamaced]

and if you put the budget chips in front of a consumer, which one would they rather have? Sempron or Pentium.

That's a very good point that I didn't think of. This will help with their campaign against AMD. But as i've said earlier, it'll still cause confusion when comparing the various Intel chips together. Especially for the casual PC enthusiast

 

[Big B]

Oh, definitely. I know I can't whip out the differences between the Pentium 500, 600, 800 and 900 series that easily. They're there, but off the top of my head? Nope.

I can't imagine people that don't follow things that closely to know it if I don't.

I think Intel will use the Pentium brand until it's past it's usefulness. The brand is over 10 years old, and arguably more recognized than AMD's Athlon just out of having a head start.

Centrino is a mobile platform rather than an actual processor, and I know that's been a problem.

 

[zeus]

Pentium is without a doubt the most recognized processor and recognized brands only apply to people who dont know exactly what they are looking for.

Holding onto the Pentium name means nothing to us computer geeks but to the average user (dare I say it) it was the only processor properly advertised on tv so is the one people will think is best. I cant remember seeing a single AMD advert (probably because they dont have the ping.... intel inside interuption like intel) so they arent even in contention when it comes to brand power with pc newbies and like AT said pentium has been going for many generations so is the longest running by far.

Id never heard of celeron until I bought one in 2000 and didnt know if it was a celeron 2 or 3 or whether it was better than my mates P3. Celeron is still confusing imo!

Seeing as pentium is better known and inferior to intel core Intel have made a good decision in keeping it running imo. If the celeron made a public impact the way the pentium did all those years ago then maybe they should have kept that running. Who knows, maybe it will take the intel cell to finally get rid of the pentium.... and the core will be the budget cpu. After-all "dual core" is a phrase people are already becoming familiar with so as long as "core" is in the name it will prove popular im sure. I dont know which AMD cpus are dual core... why should the average pc world customer?