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As first hinted at by Intel back in late April, Intel is embarking on a journey to redefine its client processor branding, the biggest such shift in the previous 15 years of the company. Having already made waves by altering its retail packaging on premium desktop chips such as the Core i9-11900K and Core i9-12900K, the tech giant aims to introduce a new naming scheme across its client processors, signaling a transformative phase in its client roadmap.
This shift is due to begin in the second half of the year, when Intel will launch their highly anticipated Meteor Lake CPUs. Meteor Lake represents a significant leap forward for the company in regards to manufacturing, architecture, and design – and, it would seem, is prompting the need for a fresh product naming convention.
The most important changes include dropping the ‘i’ from the naming scheme and opting for a more straightforward Core 3, 5, and 7 branding structure for Intel’s mainstream processors. The other notable inclusion, which is now officially confirmed, is that Intel will bifurcate the Core brand a bit and place its premium client products in their own category, using the new Ultra moniker. Ultra chips will signify a higher performance tier and target market for the parts, and will be the only place Intel uses their top-end Core 9 (previously i9) branding.
The Core i series debuted in 2008, around 15 years ago, marking the end of the first Core/Core 2 era and signaling a new dawn for Intel’s client product lines. This change happened alongside the release of its 45 nm manufacturing process through the Nehalem architecture and covered products such as Celeron, Pentium Core, and the Xeon brands. More recently, in 2020, Intel initiated a more comprehensive overhaul of its corporate identity to modernize the messaging from a 50 year old company, the effects of which are still winding through the company today.
This revamp of Intel’s branding has involved the introduction of new trademarks and logos characterized by cleaner typography and simplistic geometric backgrounds with a lighter blue color scheme. As part of this process, Intel has previously bid farewell to its long-established budget CPU brands, Pentium and Celeron. These branding changes were undoubtedly intended to convey a willingness to change, transcend, and solidify their position in an emerging market.
Going from the older Core Duo branding to the Core i3 series marked the dawn of Intel’s modern low-end processor branding, with the quantitative markup of their other lineups into the Core i5 (mid-range) and the Core i7 series – which at the time, was reserved for Intel’s flagship processors.
The latest branding change, as previously mentioned, is the biggest in the last 15 years of Intel.
