There goes ‘i’: Intel dropping the iconic ‘i’ in new naming scheme
A new generation of Intel processors is expected to launch in the second half of the year, and with it, a rebranding of naming conventions.
The longstanding ‘i’, which has been a mainstay for Intel processor names for the last 15 years, will be dropped entirely. Instead, it will just cut straight to the Core model without the ‘i’ prefix.
So, for example, an Intel Core i5 will now just be called an Intel Core 5.
Along with the ‘i’, Intel will also remove the ‘Generation’ label at the beginning of the model name. As such, the imminent Meteor Lake processors set to launch later this year will not have the ’14th Gen’ label attached to it.
For context, the Intel processor in its longform name will include the ‘## Gen’ label at the beginning, indicative of the processor codename. Take for example the 13th Gen Intel Core i5-13500, where ’13th Gen’ indicates that it belongs to the Raptor Lake series released last year (2022).
This time around, Intel will not label this year’s Meteor Lake series as 14th Gen.
Aside from rebranding tweaks, Intel will also offer two tiers of processors: Intel Core, and Intel Core Ultra.
From an interview with The Verge, Intel says that the rebranding will help consumers identify their processors now that its names are much more simplified and are segmented clearly.
Intel has yet to provide a full scope of what each tier offers, though it’s hinted that the Ultra tier will offer “bigger feature sets”, indicating that it will be a flagship offering.
