Intel to rebrand select Atom processors as Celeron / Pentium chips

Shawn Knight

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intel atom netbook

What do you do when a product line continues to evolve yet is still haunted by its past? You rebrand it, of course. That’s exactly what Intel is doing with the latest Atom processors – electing to brand select Silvermont silicon as Celeron and Pentium components.

Intel said the reason for the rebanding has to do with performance, as some versions of Silvermont are capable of performing on par with current Celeron and Pentium processors. True enough, there are some variants of the platform that will ship with PC-like features including SATA and PCI. But is that really the reasoning behind the idea to ditch the Atom brand?

Perhaps, but there’s another likely reason as well: netbooks. The Atom processor is synonymous with underpowered netbooks that attempted to overtake the market just before modern tablets arrived on the scene. These notebook alternatives were easy on the wallet but lacked any serious processing power, a reputation that has stuck with the Atom brand ever since.

Either way, we can expect to see Silvermont / Atom / Pentium / Celeron chips show up in a number of devices later this year. Notebooks, convertibles, all-in-ones and desktops running either Android or Windows 8.1 are all fair game.

We are hearing, however, that chips destined for tablet use will likely not take on the new branding, which will initially be limited to more capable systems like all-in-ones, hybrids and notebooks.

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ATOM Inside scares customers away.. So someone had idea lets say Celeron (aka no release) into the test devices now.
 
Just call it Intel inside there. Brand the chips as SXC, DXC or QXC. All anyone cares about it the performance angle.

Example:

SXC = Single Xtreme Core
DXC = Dual Xtreme Core
QXC = Quad Xtreme Core

If they really wanted to do this right.
 
Even celeron and pentium brands are really slow, I dont know why the ppl should chose pentium or celeron pc, laptops or even tablets or phones, the performance is ridiculous
 
Rebranding from Atom to Celeron is like rebranding from Edsel to Ford (I was about to use Merkur, but it was too luxurious for the analogy) instead of Lincoln. Maybe i1 is too much for it, but I think simply using the brand "Core" [something] would help it a lot more than Celeron or Pentium.
 
Whenever I see Atom, I think slow. This is a good choice. I think Intel should get rid of the Celeron brand since some ultrabooks will begin to eat into the budget sector ($500).
 
When I see 'Atom' I think underwhelming, under performing and overpriced.

When I see 'Celeron' I think underwhelming, under performing and overpriced.

When I see 'Pentium, I think old, Socket 5 and overpriced.

Seems to fit the overall intel pattern.
 
Atom = Ford Escort = Crap;
Celeron =Ford Escort GT = Crap Deluxe.

New branding and a clean break from the past is definitely in order.
 
Intel Engineer had told me once about the Intel Celeron = No Release Chips, but Intel still tries to sell defective CPU anyway and disable the defective features. Thus you have Celeron. You get a good CPU for less, might have less L2 Cache or some other feature like GHz speed is less an etc.
 
Even celeron and pentium brands are really slow, I dont know why the ppl should chose pentium or celeron pc, laptops or even tablets or phones, the performance is ridiculous


The Pentiums G860 or G2020 are actually really decent CPU's. Fantastic price/performance.
 
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