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So it turns out these names refer to actual lakes indeed (of the remaining three I mentioned, the two are in Ontario and one in Minnesota). It did not occur to
by 4cao 6y ago
So it turns out these names refer to actual lakes indeed (of the remaining three I mentioned, the two are in Ontario and one in Minnesota). It did not occur to me to search Google Maps directly: seems they are not notable enough to have Wikipedia entries, which is where I checked.
Still, the bigger point is: what purpose do such compound names serve? Early on the codenames were simpler, e.g. Katmai (Pentium III), Banias (Pentium M), Yonah (Core Solo/Duo). Specifically, what additional information is conveyed by the "Lake" categorization, where within the same broad product group (CPUs) some projects are called "Lake," and some others are "non-Lake?"
If there is actually some distinction (client/server/embedded perhaps?), wouldn't such a codename be self-defeating by revealing too much ("Something Lake" announced makes it obvious Intel is working on a client CPU)? And if it's meaningless then using two words when one would suffice seems redundant.
- snazz 6y ago"Coffee Lake" is more memorable and easily pronounceable than Banias, in my opinion. I think that's the only reason.
- 4cao 6y agoBetween the two it's a matter of preference. Personally I enjoyed the Israeli codenames, especially as they were borne by several really good CPU designs at the time, whereas the more mainstream in terms of its naming Willamette/Prescott (Pentium IV) was a big disappointment. I understand they'd wanted to simplify the names though. Still, why not just "Tiger" instead of "Tiger Lake" then? (A rhetorical question at this point perhaps.)
- srtjstjsj 6y agoTiger isn't a lake, it's a cat. Tiger Lake is a lake.
- 4cao 6y agoTiger is a town in Georgia, which, unlike all these lakes, even has a Wikipedia entry, [1] so the name definitely qualifies under the policy of using geographic locations as codenames as well. However, since the location names used under this policy are so obscure few people (including an Intel employee in a parallel comment) even realize they refer to actual places, the whole naming convention arguably makes little sense at this point. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger,_Georgia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger,_Georgia