Intel to drop C word from Atom chip brand

Not Centrinos any more

By Tony Smith, 14th August 2008

Intel has scratched the 'Centrino' off its Atom product line labels, the chip maker has confessed.

Intel launched Atom moniker back in April, initially as a line of CPUs - codenamed 'Silverthorne' - for handheld internet tablets, all of which were intended to be bundled with the 'Paulsbo' chipset and go out under the Centrino Atom brand as a platform package codenamed 'Menlow'.

In June, Intel launched a couple more of the CPUs - the 'Diamondville' variety - for netbooks and compact desktops. These sell simply as Atom.

Now, so too will the MID offerings, part of a process - an Intel spokesman told IDG - of "simplifying and coalescing our efforts around Atom as the single brand for Internet devices".

And, we'd add, to avoid any confusion with those other Centrinos, the laptops - products far more widely associated with the C word than MIDs are, or were ever likely to be.

Send Corrections