Intel will upgrade its flagship PC chip in the beginning of the year, but it will keep the current name.

"Prescott," the code name for an optimized version of the Pentium 4, will continue to be sold under the Pentium 4 name, according to sources close to the company. Prescott chips will contain 13 new instructions to improve multimedia performance and run at higher speeds than existing Pentium 4s.

Read more: CNet News.

I must say Pentium, not much less Pentium4 has a very popular name for itself.

Just like Windows

I suppose Intel is just trying to corner the 32bit processor arena, now that they have no showing in 64bit, by releasing the P4 EE and the Prescott now.

I think this is pretty smart. Everyone knows what a Pentium is, and if they were to just go and change the name it could be a disadvantage. Granted it would be a new term to the chip world, it could raise quite a few questions from some not so savvy computer consumers. If it stays as the Pentium I think they will get a better drive in the market.

Very true Poert, besides, when Intel first released the P4, they said that there would be no P5, that the P4 would be the last to bear the Pentium name. I guess they are just going to milk the P4 name as long as they can. The Pentium name has become a very identifiable icon in the computer industry.

Intel must be making considerable amount of money from the sales of Dell desktop systems. They're so cheap that's it's ridiculuous.. you can't even make your own system with their offering price.

After the Pentium 4, they will just market their new CPU as "The Next Pentium!" anyway.

If you think about it the Pentium name should never have been carried to the PII, much less beyond that. Wasn't Pentium used in reference to 586? Always seemed odd to me that they have kept the name as long as they have.

Maybe it was in the hope that something good would come of it. I mean if you keep changing the name of something until it finally gets good and worthwhile, you might have already used the catchy name for it. This way they just carried the name along and eventually it turned into something great.

Well, I know thats why they kept the name, it became a symbol that people recognised. Same reason that car companies still use the same names for cars which now look nor perform anything like their classic versions.

I had just thought it odd because the name seemed to have a purpose at the time, that purpose had been fulfilled.

The new P4 doesn't look far enough beyond present P4 to deserve renewed recognition through a new name.. At best, the new CPU deserves is something like, "P4 Xtreme" or something simliar. But a new name... Like P5? Nah.

I'd save the new name for the 64-bit CPU coming up.

There already is a P4 Extreme Edition!

I wonder what they'll name it actually. The UberPentium 4? Now that "Extreme" is taken Intel is (and most other manufacturers are) probably exhausted of creative processor names. Extreme is becoming such a cliche anyway.

All these different pentium IVs do get rather confusing, especially when they add other things than just speed. Having the same name for a series of processors is fine as long as the speed is the only difference and they're otherwise compatible.

With all the developments such as HT integrated in some versions (C, I think?), various new instructions/extensions getting added, I think a new name would be a good idea. What happens when time passes and new applications are developed which actually require those new instructions? It would be much easier to say that this application requires a Hexium than that it requires a Pentium 4 revision 8.73 with extension B9.

Good point, but the only problem with that is public confusion. Everyone and their brother knows what a Pentium is, and I'm sure they don't wanna change that with a new name that will take the public a while to figure out what it is and does.

This way Intel can keep its customer base with the Pentium series and not lose out on the with new names.

Think that this thread contains a perfect illustration of the kind of confusion that comes with too many versions of a product using the same name. Whether it be different cache as in the thread I linked, or whether its a differnt core, or whatever, it confuses people. I've seen quite a few who have been confused by all the different versions of CPUs bearing essentially the same name. Retailers take advantage of this confusion, sometimes to the dismay of the consumer.

While it might be easier for a company to simply keep using the same tried and true name, it can confuse consumers and sometimes be misleading when retailers take advantage of it.
It is a bit of a double edged sword, if you change the name, you have to be able to do it in a way the consumer can still recognise it. Not changing it lets people identify with the name, but you get confusion between the different versions of the product with that name.

If everyone read reviews and technical data, there wouldn't be any problem, but fact is, the average consumer doesn't.

Oh, I'm sure there would still be something that people would complain about even if they read everything. I bet most of them wouldn't believe what they were reading. It's just the way the society works.