Intel processors - why so many?

Supatramp

Why is Intel churning out this apparently never-ending range of processors?

And what's with these 'U' ones running at 1.7Gz and similar seemingly low-powered figures? I even came across an i5 running at I think it was 1.7!

Could a techie maybe explain in non-techie terms for a simple soul like me?

Thanks in anticipation.

Mr_Toad

For similar reasons that you can get cars with engines ranging in size from 700cc up to 6.3L and beyond.

Put the CPU equivalent of the 6.3L V12 in a laptop and the battery would last about 10 minutes. Put the CPU equivalent of the 700cc in a server and you'd be waiting until Easter for your database search to return the results.

Cycrow

Its not quite the same as with engine sizes.

As all CPUs in the same range are basically the same. Made from the same design. They are just tested for stability at certain speeds. Those that are not stable enough at the higher speeds get their speed limited and sold at the slower speed.

Of course, sometimes, you may get all the cpu's passing the higher speeds, so they dont have enough supply for the slower ones, so simply limit the faster ones.

This is why you can overclock cpu's.

Also by underclocking the cpus (running them at slow speeds) they use less power, so can be sold as low power/economy cpu's

Mr_Toad

Cycrow wrote: »

Its not quite the same as with engine sizes.

As all CPUs in the same range are basically the same. Made from the same design. They are just tested for stability at certain speeds. Those that are not stable enough at the higher speeds get their speed limited and sold at the slower speed.

Of course, sometimes, you may get all the cpu's passing the higher speeds, so they dont have enough supply for the slower ones, so simply limit the faster ones.

This is why you can overclock cpu's.

Also by underclocking the cpus (running them at slow speeds) they use less power, so can be sold as low power/economy cpu's

That's pretty much what I said but without the geek speak.

50Twuncle

Supatramp wrote: »

Why is Intel churning out this apparently never-ending range of processors?

And what's with these 'U' ones running at 1.7Gz and similar seemingly low-powered figures? I even came across an i5 running at I think it was 1.7!

Could a techie maybe explain in non-techie terms for a simple soul like me?

Thanks in anticipation.

There is an even slower i5 running at 1.3Ghz (4250U) - As used in NUC's !!
These, presumably are not low grade "seconds" but are designed for this purpose to generate less heat (NUC's have no cooling fan)

spannerzone

It's getting stupid though what with intel now calling their Atom CPU's Celeron's - it's now time consuming to even know what you're getting and can't make assumptions.

I'm all for choice and can see a need for many of these CPU types but they could have kept the naming simpler I'd imagine.

It's great that the tiny NUC style computers still have the option of high performing CPU's, albeit in a low voltage/consumption package....but with such an array of options it is nuts.....

50Twuncle

I remember when there were just 386 SX's then Intel offered DX's
This was the start of it ??

kaya

It's called "marketing"

Johnmcl7

spannerzone wrote: »

It's getting stupid though what with intel now calling their Atom CPU's Celeron's - it's now time consuming to even know what you're getting and can't make assumptions.

Which Atom processors are badged as Celerons?

John

Johnmcl7

Supatramp wrote: »

Why is Intel churning out this apparently never-ending range of processors?

And what's with these 'U' ones running at 1.7Gz and similar seemingly low-powered figures? I even came across an i5 running at I think it was 1.7!

Could a techie maybe explain in non-techie terms for a simple soul like me?

Thanks in anticipation.

The 'U' and 'Y' versions are ultra low voltage which trade performance for low power consumption and thermals making them suitable for small and thin laptops and tablets.

John

spannerzone

Johnmcl7 wrote: »

Which Atom processors are badged as Celerons?

John

The Bay Trail / Silvermount Atoms:
http://ark.intel.com/products/codename/55844/Bay-Trail#@All

I suppose actually it's just a case of a certain type of processor architecture being given different names which has always happened with all Celerons, as a Celeron was always a cut down version of its bigger brother.... so perhaps I'm a little innacurate in how I said it, but essentially Atom architecture based CPU's are also badged as Celeron and Pentium in addition to other Celeron and Pentium architecture that's based on 'proper' desktop CPU's such as Ivy Bridge / Haswell etc.