Y
Yousuf Khan
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~86164,00.html
The speculation so far:
(1) it's a Geode NX SOC processor brought to the desktop and laptop.
(2) it's a Geode GX processor. Which would mean that it's really an Athlon
XP.
(3) it is an Athlon XP, the present-day core. AMD have said that they will
be making new Athlon XP's using the same design as the Athlon 64's, with
half of the L2 cache and 64-bit mode disabled. So the new XP's will sit
inside Socket 754, so maybe the old XP's sitting in Socket A will become the
Semprons.
Yousuf Khan
The speculation so far:
(1) it's a Geode NX SOC processor brought to the desktop and laptop.
(2) it's a Geode GX processor. Which would mean that it's really an Athlon
XP.
(3) it is an Athlon XP, the present-day core. AMD have said that they will
be making new Athlon XP's using the same design as the Athlon 64's, with
half of the L2 cache and 64-bit mode disabled. So the new XP's will sit
inside Socket 754, so maybe the old XP's sitting in Socket A will become the
Semprons.
Yousuf Khan
R
Robert Myers
Yousuf said:
Sem'-pron (n.) A brand name we are supposed to be thinking, talking, and
speculating about, so that when AMD produces a press release with
substance, we will treat yet another marketing blurb as critical
information that we have been seeking.
Not being familiar with the web literature on marketing, I'm reluctant
to recommend a link, but the google search
basics campaign awareness brand introduction
provides a plausible set of links that seem to cover the territory at
least superficially.
In any case, the technical substance here has to do with marketing, not
with microprocessors. ;-).
RM
R
rms
The speculation so far:
Well all I can find is that Sempron is a latin contraction for
Sempronius, which was a famous Roman family, that included the brothers
Gracchi. These two tried to bring some power of legislation to the masses,
and were killed by the patrician oligarchs for their trouble. Sounds
similar to the present Neocon power-grab in the government at present.
http://www.ancientworlds.net/20
rms
Well all I can find is that Sempron is a latin contraction for
Sempronius, which was a famous Roman family, that included the brothers
Gracchi. These two tried to bring some power of legislation to the masses,
and were killed by the patrician oligarchs for their trouble. Sounds
similar to the present Neocon power-grab in the government at present.
http://www.ancientworlds.net/20
rms
L
lyon_wonder
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~86164,00.html
Sounds more like an appropriate name for a premium brew of petrol than
a name for a CPU.
Sounds more like an appropriate name for a premium brew of petrol than
a name for a CPU.
R
Rob Stow
lyon_wonder said:
Hmmm ... and there I was thinking it would be
a good name for a laxative.
K
KR Williams
Processes your shit much faster? Works for me. ...if I needed
my shit processed faster. The Opteron processes it plenty fast,
at least for now. ;-)
T
Tony Hill
According to this article:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1607985,00.asp
The "Sempron" is just the next-generation marketing name for the AMD
Duron line of chips. Not many details released yet, but my guess is
that it will be a K8-core chip running at lower clock speeds and with
less cache and the Athlon64 and Opteron lines.
Y
Yousuf Khan
KR Williams said:
AMD marketing really has no luck in naming their value processors do they?
First there was Duron, which was the name of a paint company. It was also
very close in name to a condom brand named Durex. Now it's Sempron which
sounds like a laxative. Maybe greek or latin terms should be avoided?
Anyways, I'm glad they didn't choose "Forton", because that was another one
of their choices. We'd have to sit through flatulence jokes continuously.
Yousuf Khan
Y
Yousuf Khan
lyon_wonder said:
There is apparently a pharmceutical company by the name of Sempron, because
AMD wasn't able to trademark the "Sempron" name by itself, but it could
brandname the "AMD Sempron".
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/07/amd_sempron/
Anyways, it is likely a play on the latin word "semper" which means
"always". Used in the US Marine Corps motto, "Semper Fidelis" or "Semper
Fi", that means "always faithful". So Sempron means "always on"?
Yousuf Khan
G
George Macdonald
There is apparently a pharmceutical company by the name of Sempron, because
AMD wasn't able to trademark the "Sempron" name by itself, but it could
brandname the "AMD Sempron".
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/07/amd_sempron/
Anyways, it is likely a play on the latin word "semper" which means
"always". Used in the US Marine Corps motto, "Semper Fidelis" or "Semper
Fi", that means "always faithful". So Sempron means "always on"?
The Latin sempre or semper is often used for "forever" or "always" as you
say - our school motto was Semper Paratus... which I'm sure is common
enough but here for AMD it seems like it carries the same message as Duron
did: lasting, durable, dependable, etc.
Of course it could be AMD's Centrino too if they make up a package for the
home market.
Rgds, George Macdonald
"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??
R
Robert Myers
George Macdonald wrote:
A gold star for you, George. Well done..
If I mine the vein you have identified, I come up with
performance, power = Athlon, Thoroughbred = fast, a winner, a champion
value = Duron, Sempron = plodding, but reliable
As to your school motto, I can't help thinking that it would have
elicited an adolescent smirk or two, but then my mind has been polluted
by the ending of Tom Lehrer's song about the Boy Scout motto "Be
Prepared."
Once you get into *that* line of thinking (and what advertiser doesn't
want you to get into that line of thinking?), of course, a whole
different set of associations comes to mind for AMD's choices of brand name.
Don't know what to do with Opteron, though.
player = Opteron = slick operator? ;-).
RM
A gold star for you, George. Well done.
.If I mine the vein you have identified, I come up with
performance, power = Athlon, Thoroughbred = fast, a winner, a champion
value = Duron, Sempron = plodding, but reliable
As to your school motto, I can't help thinking that it would have
elicited an adolescent smirk or two, but then my mind has been polluted
by the ending of Tom Lehrer's song about the Boy Scout motto "Be
Prepared."
Once you get into *that* line of thinking (and what advertiser doesn't
want you to get into that line of thinking?), of course, a whole
different set of associations comes to mind for AMD's choices of brand name.
Don't know what to do with Opteron, though.
player = Opteron = slick operator? ;-).
RM
K
KR Williams
No, first there was "Athlon". ...half a winter Olympic sport.
;-)
I thought a "Forton" was something one slept on, or a programming
language or sumpin'.
J
Johannes H Andersen
Yousuf said:
A Semptron sounds like you should handle it with care, or it might go off?
G
George Macdonald
George Macdonald wrote:
A gold star for you, George. Well done.
If I mine the vein you have identified, I come up with
performance, power = Athlon, Thoroughbred = fast, a winner, a champion
value = Duron, Sempron = plodding, but reliable
"Plodding"?... seems like a kinda AMD-hostile interpretation - no? More
like "always there [when you need it]". Really though, it's just a
strategy... just in case Intel manages to convince Joe Average that 64-bit
is way to complex and unnecessary for him - talk about insulting the
audience. Even comedians know better than that!
Nah my school days pre-date TW3... and the birth of modern cynicism. Back
then, sodomy was illegal and you could smoke anywhere.
They're all kinda stupid... starting with Pentium. I love the way they
even extended it into tormenting the journos into vying to be the first to
"know" the latest code name.
Rgds, George Macdonald
"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??
R
Robert Myers
George said:George Macdonald wrote:
A gold star for you, George. Well done.
If I mine the vein you have identified, I come up with
performance, power = Athlon, Thoroughbred = fast, a winner, a champion
value = Duron, Sempron = plodding, but reliable
"Plodding"?... seems like a kinda AMD-hostile interpretation - no? More
like "always there [when you need it]".
AMD-hostile? The message went right through the unintentional hostility
filter...guess it needs some work. "Value" processors cost less.
Everybody knows that, don't they? Don't want to insult people... there
must be something about the processor that's acceptable that justifies
its being sold at a lower price. Sensible people don't expect something
for nothing, after all.
It does the things you need it to do fast enough, and gets whatever you
need to do done, it just doesn't do it _unnecessarily_ quickly. A
processor for people who wear sensible shoes. Sir, if you are the sort
of person who thinks that wearing sensible shoes is not "cool," then you
probably want to be looking at our _performance_ line of processors,
over here.
"Always there when you need it" is probably the right interpretation,
though. Who knows where you might be now if this hidden talent for
message-shaping had been discovered in a timely fashion.
But you're clearly uncomfortable with the enterprise. That's a shame.
Remember when chips were known by numbers?
.Nah my school days pre-date TW3... and the birth of modern cynicism. Back
then, sodomy was illegal and you could smoke anywhere.
Cynicism is an invention of the sixties? I had rather thought that
popular misinterpretation of the meaning of the theory of relativity,
egged along by Freud and subversive influences like Bloomsbury had
destroyed Western civilization before the first World War. ;-). Even
the conservative holdouts who tend toward things like study of the
classics and who like to use phrases like _modus_ponens_ in the course
of justifiying their world view should have realized that it was all in
with the publication of Gödel's dour conclusions, but it seems to be in
the nature of conservatives not to acknowledge change. If those people
had had a sense of humor, they would have seen it all coming with the
publication of Lewis Carroll's recondite treatises on absurdity.
Oh, wait. You said _modern_ cynicism. How is that different from
regular old cynicism? Are you saying that Great Britain of the sixties
was even more degenerate than, say, the Weimar Republic?
Just so. My previous post was to point out that we were being made a
part of a similar exercise. We know the name, now we're just dying to
know the details.
As Randy Newman said of LA, "I love it."
RM
N
nobody
I bought my CPU as Opteron not for the name, but for what it is.
Would've bought it if they'd called it K8 or Am886 or whatever else,
unless different name ment lower performance or higher price ;-)
Unfortunately Joe Sixpack hardly understands what the clock speed is
about, and can't tell L2 cache from his pocket cash, he just wants a
PC cooler (should I spell it KEWLER?) than his next door neighbor's.
As long as buying decisions are more influenced by marketing gimmicks
than technical merit, expect more strange-sounding names and catch
phrases like "will enhance your Internet experience" or "incorporates
the latest Netburst technology". "New Pentiums are hot, hot, hot!!!"
spells trouble for Intel engineers trying to bring the heat
dissipation down, but the same phrase aired on TV would increase the
sales. "Sempron" is just another marketing gimmick, looks to me as a
clumsy attempt to replace "Duron" because the latter probably doesn't
sit well with some AMD marketing execs.
Would've bought it if they'd called it K8 or Am886 or whatever else,
unless different name ment lower performance or higher price ;-)
Unfortunately Joe Sixpack hardly understands what the clock speed is
about, and can't tell L2 cache from his pocket cash, he just wants a
PC cooler (should I spell it KEWLER?) than his next door neighbor's.
As long as buying decisions are more influenced by marketing gimmicks
than technical merit, expect more strange-sounding names and catch
phrases like "will enhance your Internet experience" or "incorporates
the latest Netburst technology". "New Pentiums are hot, hot, hot!!!"
spells trouble for Intel engineers trying to bring the heat
dissipation down, but the same phrase aired on TV would increase the
sales. "Sempron" is just another marketing gimmick, looks to me as a
clumsy attempt to replace "Duron" because the latter probably doesn't
sit well with some AMD marketing execs.
Y
Yousuf Khan
Tony Hill said:
I have a feeling that it's initially going to be what is currently the
Athlon XP lineup. This lineup is still holding its own against the Pentium
4, and very well against the Celeron. I don't think there is much ramping
that is left to do for it, seems the market for the fastest speed processor
has gotten much less heated these days, and the current Athlon XPs will
continue to be competitive without speed improvements for a long time it
looks like.
They are however transforming the Athlon XP into a lobotomized Athlon 64,
with the 64-bit mode disabled. They don't want people getting confused by
what is the difference between an Athlon XP on Socket 754 vs. an Athlon XP
on Socket A, so they will rename the old Socket A XP's to this Sempron.
Yousuf Khan
K
K Williams
Yousuf said:
Oh, that's perfectly clear! I'm about as impressed by this strategy
as I was about the Celeron 300.
Y
Yousuf Khan
K Williams said:
Eh, what can you do? Marketing is marketing.
Yousuf Khan