by Jeff Dorsch
The third generation of Intel desktop processors, marketed as the Core vPro Processors, is the latest type of microprocessors you’ll find in PCs. Their cousin for use in servers is the Xeon E3. All these processors are commonly known as “Ivy Bridge” processors, for their microarchitecture. “Ivy Bridge” is the successor to the “Sandy Bridge” architecture, which represented the second generation of Intel’s Core processors.
Long after processors have their formal launches and get their official brand names, they often retain their code names in media coverage and other references. “Sandy Bridge” was originally known as “Gesher,” the Hebrew word for bridge, but Intel dropped that code name when it learned that there once was an Israeli political party by that name.
Intel doesn’t want to attract controversy over its code names, as it did with Frank Zappa’s estate when it gave the “Zappa” code name to a chip project in 1995. For the most part, it has used geographic place names for its code names. There was a long string of processors named for rivers in California and Oregon – Clackamas, Deschutes, Klamath, Merced, Nehalem (a microchip architecture), Tillamook, Tualatin, Yamhill. North American place names represent a big portion of Intel’s code names now, including Bonnell (the first-generation Atom processor), for Mount Bonnell in Austin, Texas, where Intel has an IC design center. The code-name lexicon has gone worldwide, too, and there are a number of Hebrew words, thanks to Intel’s operations in Israel.
The successor to the “Ivy Bridge” and “Sandy Bridge” architectures is the “Haswell” architecture, which is apparently named for a town in Colorado. Chips with the “Haswell” architecture will be released in 2013.
Processor code names aren’t confined to Intel, of course. Advanced Micro Devices also names its chips and microarchitectures in development. The “Bulldozer” and “Piledriver” architectures are in its newest accelerated processing units, which combine CPUs with graphics processing units in one chip. AMD has resorted to international place names, such as Barcelona, Budapest, Geneva, Istanbul, Ontario, and Shanghai, for various processors. An island theme has emerged in recent years. The Radeon HD 6000 was code-named “Northern Islands,” the Radeon HD 7000 was “Southern Islands,” the forthcoming Radeon HD 8000 is code-named “Sea Islands,” and products set for 2014 and 2015 are reportedly code-named “Volcanic Islands” and “Pirate Islands.”
The electronics industry, as well, likes to employ code names for products in development. Google has famously named its releases of the Android mobile operating system after sweet treats, and done it in alphabetical order, no less. Starting with Android 1.5, they’ve had Cupcake, Donut, Éclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jelly Bean. While Apple retained “Lisa” as the official product name for an early desktop PC, the Apple III was code-named “Sara.” Microsoft Windows 95 was called “Chicago.” The IBM Enterprise Storage Server was “Shark.”
What’s your favorite industry code name?