- 2006.03.17
Ed Hurtley is a former Intel employee. He shares the
history of Intel's CPU code names and what future Intel CPUs will
deliver.
With the ongoing switch to Intel CPUs, Apple fans have been forced
to learn a whole new batch of code names. Intel is famous for using
code names for each of its processors, which, unlike Apple's code
names, are publicly used by Intel executives, often years in advance of
a product's release.
For example, the current crop of Intel Macs uses a processor that
went by the code name "Yonah" during development. This processor now
goes by the names Core Duo and Core Solo, depending on the
configuration. Coming up are a trio of related processors code named
"Merom", "Conroe", and "Woodcrest".
What do these names mean?
First, a bit of Intel history. During early days of processor
development, Intel's CPUs didn't have code names, they just had model
numbers. 4004, 8088, 80286, etc.
Since a random string of numbers can't be trademarked, Intel decided
to come up with names for them. The first attempt at this was to
shorten the processor's model number. Thus, the 80486 became the i486DX
- not very interesting, but it could be trademarked.
During development of their fifth generation processor, Intel not
only did away with the model number as a public name, but as a code
name as well.
As marketing hadn't yet come up with a good public name for the
upcoming fifth generation CPU, Intel engineers named the chip the P5.
Later, marketing came up with the name Pentium™.
At about this time, Intel broke processor development into two
groups - one group based in California, the other in Oregon - and code
names took on place names. So the first Pentium II processor acquired
the code name "Klamath" after a river in Oregon.
For many processor generations, processor cores were named after
rivers in Oregon and later on for other locations where Intel had
facilities.
After the release of the Pentium 4 Processor, Intel saw the need to
develop a lower power processor for mobile use. They tasked this to
their division in Haifa, Israel.
This team was so successful with their design, the Pentium M (code
name "Banias") that Intel eventually decided to abandon the Pentium 4
line for a new core designed as a hybrid combining features from both
the Pentium 4 and Pentium M lines.
This new line's first series of chips will be Merom, Conroe, and
Woodcrest.
Back to the present. We have the new Intel-based iMac, MacBook Pro,
and Mac mini using Intel's Core Duo and Core Solo chips, code named
Yonah. These chips are a direct descendent of the Banias/Pentium M
chip.
The big advance that Yonah made over its predecessor, "Dothan", was
dual-cores. In contrast to other dual-core designs, Yonah has a shared
level 2 cache. Most current dual core designs are more like having two
single processors attached on one piece of silicon. Yonah's design
shares many internal components.
The next generation of processors are all based on one similar core
with slightly different features for different uses.
Merom is the successor to the mobile Yonah chip. The big advancement
it adds over Yonah is 64-bit mode.
Conroe is the chip aimed at the desktop market. It will replace the
single-core Pentium 4 and its dual-core equivalent, the Pentium D.
Based on the same core technology as Merom, it will have slower clock
speeds than Pentium 4, yet be faster in actual processing capability
(remember the core truth of the Megahertz Myth - a more efficient CPU
can outperform a less efficient one even when the less efficient one
runs at a faster clock speed).
Conroe will likely have less power-saving technologies to make it
cheaper, although this hasn't yet been confirmed.
Woodcrest is the workstation/server chip. It will replace Intel's
Xeon line of processors in the multiprocessor market. It also will
likely have fewer power-saving features enabled and may (also not
confirmed) support HyperThreading, a feature that is lacking on Intel's
current mobile chips (as well as all but the most expensive dual-core
desktop chips).
More information on Intel's code names can be seen on the Wikipedia
entry for Intel Core Microarchitecture, where you'll also see code
names like Penryn, Wolfdale, Clovertown, Perryville, and Dunnington.
Further reading: Intel Core
Microarchitecture, Wikipedia
