Intel gives up on super-charged 'Gesher'
Call me 'Sandy Bridge'
IDF El Reg has forced Intel into another awkward chip name change, the company confirmed today. 'Gesher', its next-gen 32nm microarchitecture, is no more.
Intel first talked up Gesher during last September's IDF (Intel Developer Forum), using the name to describe an upcoming 32nm processor that will use a fresh microarchitecture. As it happens, Gesher - 'bridge' in Hebrew - is also the name of an Israeli political party.
We wondered how long Intel would stick near the semi-charged name and have now learned the answer – about seven months.
Intel's server chip chief, Pat Gelsinger, told us that the company abandoned Gesher "for a variety of internal and external reasons" and added that the company prefers "non-volatile code-names".
Gesher shall be known from here on out as 'Sandy Bridge'.
A few years back, we also broke word on the 'Tanglewood' version of Itanium. Some feisty musicians in Massachusetts urged Intel to abandon that name in favor of Tukwila. ®
COMMENTS
Does it really matter?
Should I protest the name Bluetooth because he probably chopped off a few enemies' heads in battle? I don't think it really matters if the name is generic enough, pretty much any name has some kind of political ramifications. As long as it isn't too blatant, like the Intel Hitler Supremacy Chip or something, nobody will really care, beyond stoking the fire (not that I'm blaming El Reg or anything)
The reason is...
simply that the name comes from the israeli intel team. After the failure of the indian team to develop the new version of the pentium 4 microarchitecture, intel had to fall back to the team in israel, because they come up with a fast and low power pentium pro derivate, called core. (the ppro, pII, pIII, core, core2 systems share the same microarchitecture) The engineers just choose a name that they felt was right.
...and they thought 'Gesher' was provocative
The Intel Development Forum might want to look a little closer to home for potential controversy with regards to Middle Eastern politics, as they share their acronym, 'IDF' with the Israeli army - the Israel Defence Force!
How can they be trying to avoid Israeli references...
...when their developer forum is called the IDF?
