In an unusual move, Intel's director of global communications, Bernard Fernandes, took to Twitter this morning to confirm that the chip giant is preparing some chip branding change for later this year. Citing that the company is at an “inflection point” ahead of the launch of their Meteor Lake architecture client CPUs later this year, Intel is apparently developing something new for branding their first mass-scale chiplet-based consumer CPU.

Yes, we are making brand changes as we’re at an inflection point in our client roadmap in preparation for the upcoming launch of our #MeteorLake processors. We will provide more details regarding these exciting changes in the coming weeks! #Intel

While the tweet in question doesn’t specifically address what it’s in response to, from context and timing it’s almost certainly a reaction to recent rumors that Intel is preparing to change their branding strategy for their Core family of consumer chips. And while it’s AnandTech policy not to republish or otherwise comment on rumors, an official comment from a high-ranking Intel PR representative means that this is no longer a mere rumor, and that changes are indeed in the works.

The current Core paradigm has been in place since late 2008 with the launch of the generational Core family and the now familiar i3/i5/i7 tiers. While Intel has since added the i9 tier and played with suffixes a few times in the last 15 years, Core branding has remained relatively consistent as a whole for what’s become 13 generations of parts.

But if the rumors are true, then the Core family will soon lose its i-series moniker. Based on benchmark data uploaded to the Ashes of the Singularity benchmark results database – a notorious source of leaks from hardware testers who neglect to turn off results reporting – an Intel Core Ultra 5 1003H has been spotted in the database. Which in turn suggests that Intel is intending to phase out the Core i-series branding for new Core Ultra branding.

To be sure, Intel’s tweet does not confirm the Ultra branding; and Ashes alone is not an authoritative source. But given that Intel has opted to confirm that they are making some brand changes to align with the Meteor Lake launch, if it's not Ultra, then some other kind of branding change is clearly in the works.

Source: Intel

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  • brucethemoose - Tuesday, May 2, 2023 - link

    "Laptop BGA junk" and servers are where Intel makes most their money, and where the e cores are highly competitive, even against some huge advantages AMD has.

    They are also strong in workstation desktops.

    Intel's world does not revolve around desktop gaming CPUs, but that being said there is nothing wrong with a 8 P core design on the desktop. I know of a single game that needs more than that (Dual Universe), and its pretty much dead... And I have a sneaking suspicion the next consoles are going to be hybrid designs.
  • Silver5urfer - Tuesday, May 2, 2023 - link

    HPC Intel is dying, they lost. Their E cores are not competitive there as they do not even have a product, yeah the BGA sales are higher. I know but this is a company that is the cornerstone for x86 computing meaning Desktop power and HEDT and HPC, not a mobile junk company like Apple. Finances are the only one deciding ? then Intel is going to fold this round, they are bleeding.

    Their Xeon SPR is DOA, Threadripper based on Zen 4 will kill the SPR W as it's already lost to 2 year old TR. The E core competition Bergamo is about to debut soon while Intel does not have a solution for 1 year. ARM Ampere and other IPs are closing in fast against Intel.
  • xol - Thursday, May 4, 2023 - link

    wonder if intel will try for a console design win .. would be a good way to get so traction for their arc graphics .. one way to avoid poor driver performance is to get Devs to have your design as a primary platform (eg ps6 or series 'y')..

    the "network" advantages of having their GPU in a mainstream console might be enough for them to overlook poorer margins than they might like
  • Dante Verizon - Tuesday, May 2, 2023 - link

    Everything could be going wrong, but we have a new name guys... lol

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