what's in a name?

can someone explain to me the difference between when intel changes family names like from Pentium to Core and when it just updates the generation, like 4th generation Core is a Haswell.

It looks to me like the nm just get smaller with each generation. is that referred to as the CPU's architecture?

so what has to happen to require a family name change.

hope that is somewhat clear and i didn't hack up the meanings too bad

thanks

the chips are built with a completely new architecture.
pentium to core isnt change. pentiums are also same architecture as similar time period chips there are sandy bridge pentiums and celerons as well as haswell pentiums and celerons.

lots of info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_microprocessors

wagex said:

the chips are built with a completely new architecture.
pentium to core isnt change. pentiums are also same architecture as similar time period chips there are sandy bridge pentiums and celerons as well as haswell pentiums and celerons.

lots of info here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_microprocessors

Click to expand...

ah i didnt realize they still made pentiums and celerons. i just thought it was core i3 i5 or i7 these days.

It can really be confusing, especially if you don't follow the trends and changes closely. A lot of us spend hours each week on forums like this and are pretty much up to date with the shifts and changes made by the big two CPU makers. Major architectual changes come with new "generations" of CPUs. Smaller architectual changes happen within generations to create "families". How this is done varies a lot, especially between families within the same generation. For instance, on the AMD side, moving from the Athlon to the Athon 64 is a generational change. In a given generation a family might be created simply by disabling one or more processing cores while making no other changes. Thus a Phenom II and an Athlon II are in the same generation but the only difference may be that the L3 cache was disabled to create the Athlon II. Then there are cores. Cores can represent a new generation (such as moving from Sandy Bridge to Ivy Bridge where the circuits were downsized from 32 nanometers to 25 nanometers) or the term "core" can be applied to the same CPU that has one or more processing cores disabled. For example, with AMD socket AM3 CPUs you could create a four core Athlon II and give the core name "Propus". If you disable two of the Propus' cores you now have a "Regor" core. They both started life the same, however. The terminology is quite elastic it seems to me. I should also explain that the term "core" can be used to speak of the individual processing engines that are built into the CPU or it can refer to the sum of them along with other design changes. The latter would be be associated with a name like Ivy Bridge or Regor.

Yeah, their naming scheme has gotten muddled. The current system? They roll out an architecture, and then break it apart into different chips. Here:

Architecture: Sandy Bridge

Celeron
Cache: Tiny
Bin quality: Worst of the wafer batch. Dual core.
Extensions and goodies: No turbo, hyperthreading, virtual machine extensions, ecc ram support.

Pentium
Cache: Small
Bin quality: Slightly better than Celeron. This means more clock speed at a given power draw. Dual core.
Extensions and goodies: Same as above.

Core i3
Cache: Small
Bin quality: Much better than Pentium. Dual core.
Extensions and goodies: Same as above, plus hyperthreading.

Core i5
Cache: Large
Bin quality: Same as i3. Quad core.
Extensions and goodies: Turbo boost, quick sync, virtual machine extensions. No hyperthreading.
Not all of them have virtual machine extensions, check intel’s site first.

Core i7
Cache: Largest
Bin quality: Better than i5. Quad core.
Extensions and goodies: Everything, except for ecc ram. Also, the -k series doesn't have the virtual machine extensions.




So, there ya go. This obviously will change slightly with each architectural change, from sandy to ivy to haswell to broadwell, but it’s fairly consistent.

SUPER EDIT: This is where to find everything, clear as mud. http://ark.intel.com/

Huh, didn't know that Core i5 k series doesn't have virtual machine extensions! What's the deal with that? I'm currently running several virtual machines on my AMD system and was about to switch to an i5 system. Having second thoughts now. Is this just for Haswell or does it apply to Ivy and Sandy as well?

Ah, further research finds that the k series still supports VT-x which is what VMWare Player needs.

Actually, that listing was for sandy. The haswell i5 -k has vt-x, but not vt-d.
vt-x is important for some under the hood stuff that I don't understand.
vt-d is responsible for passing physical devices through to the virtual machine. So, plug in a flash drive and virtual box sees it as a normal flash drive.
It's a good thing to have. You can even pass through entire graphics cards, though only some of them work. You CAN game in a vm, it's just a pain to set up

Also, the 4770k has the same virtual restrictions. I guess intel just hates overclockers.

The sandy-e and ivy-e series supports all the virtual extensions, ecc ram, and overclocking. Puts the hurt on my wallet just thinking about it

Also, the 4770k has the same virtual restrictions. I guess intel just hates overclockers.



That seems like the kind of bone Anand Shimpi would pick with Intel in one of his interviews.

thanks all for the answers. that cleared a lot of it up for me.

Arbiter Odie i liked how you laid it out. you know even on the intel site http://ark.intel.com they don't specifically say 4th gen or 3rd gen pentium or celeron. they only break that out for the Core I's. lead me to believe they stopped with those families.

so does anyone even buy pentiums or celerons anymore?

QuickFast said:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7872/unlocked-haswell-pentium-due-mid2014

Click to expand...

interesting way to keep that pentium brand name out there.