Say goodbye to the Pentium! Intel has taken the decision to drop the Pentium brand name, ridding itself one of its oldest and most valuable brands. Originally unveiled in 1993, the Pentium will now begin to quietly disappear in the current CPU generation.
Sources indicated that Intel will drop the Pentium name without making a major announcement, but simply transition to processor names such as "Intel D 920" or "Intel 672" without introducing a new brand. Apparently, the transition is planned to begin in the immediate future. The company declined to comment on the possibly fading Pentium brand.
This is, of course, potentially a little risky, but the move does find favour with Kevin Krewell, principal analyst with In-Stat/MDR and editor in chief of the Microprocessor Report. He claims that Intel should have dropped the name when the Pentium II came along.
"In my opinion, Intel should have introduced a new name after launching Pentium II. It was getting quite confusing already back then," he said.