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Intel It's funny. Laugh.

The Meaning Behind Intel Code Names? 84

Posted by Cliff from the have-fun-with-it dept.
Scozza asks: "In the name of science and decency, we have been trying to find the meanings of the code names used by Intel for their processors. The only problem is that we can't find links to a couple of names and would really appreciate it if Slashdot could help fill the blanks!"
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The Meaning Behind Intel Code Names? More

The Meaning Behind Intel Code Names?

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  • Next code name... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Exitthree ( 646294 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @12:08AM (#9135895) Homepage
    Denial not just a river in Egypt (based on AMD's latest sales numbers).

  • Cascades (Score:4, Informative)

    by HughsOnFirst ( 174255 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @12:14AM (#9135918)
    The mountains from which many of the rivers used as names for Intel chips flow.
    I hear the cascades are made mostly of silicon with some trace impuritys , just like Intel chips

  • Rivers...rivers... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ForestGrump ( 644805 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @12:15AM (#9135925) Homepage Journal
    With all these chips named after rivers, one has to question:
    Is Intel going downstream?
    Sadly, the latest sales figures seem to indicate so.

    -Grump

  • Names... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Rheingold ( 2741 ) <wcooley@nak e d a p e . cc> on Thursday May 13, 2004 @12:21AM (#9135947) Homepage

    Tejas is the Spanish name for Texas. Cascades are our little stretch of mountains here in the Pacific Northwest. Tualatin is also a suburb of Portland, just to the south, part of the Silicon Forest. Tulsa also happens to be a sizable city in Oklahoma.

    • Re:Names... (Score:4, Informative)

      by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @12:31AM (#9135999)
      Tejas is the Spanish name for Texas.

      Tejas was named by the Spanish after the Tejas Indians.

      • Tejas is the Spanish pronunciation of the Caddo Indian word "Tayshas" (Americanized spelling notwithstanding), which was their word for "friend" - the Caddo tribe was one of the major tribes in the Gulf Coast region during Spanish Imperialism, and were generally on good terms with the Spaniards.
      • Tejas was named by the Spanish after the Tejas Indians.

        Actually Tejas is an Hasinai indian word (that was the tribe that was native to the area of central texas) meaning "friends". Texas is an english version of the word.

        The name Tejas comes from the first mission established in this area called Francisco de los Tejas.

    • Re:Names... (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I found a couple of meanings for tejas.
      1. Spanish name for Texas (http://www.greenapple.com/~bvenrick/prov-pro-diju kno.htm)
      2. Sanskrit word for "sharpness" (http://www.jambudvipa.net/tejas.htm)

      It's probably the first since many of those names are based on geography.

    • Re:Names... (Score:3, Informative)

      by Monkelectric ( 546685 )
      Tejas is the Spanish name for Texas

      It's also a tasty ZZ Top album.

    • Tulsa also happens to be a sizable city in Oklahoma.
      Also? It's not a river in Arkansas, as even glancing at the link quoted on the page for Tulsa will show you.

      The Arkansas River flows through the city of Tulsa.

      Brilliant folks put this page together.

    • Re:Names... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by fm6 ( 162816 )

      Tejas is the Spanish name for Texas...

      As every Selena fan knows. And It shouldn't be news that Intel always uses geographic code names.

      This is an object lesson in how urban/web legends are born. Somebody hears about the Tejas Wicca Coven, and says "Aha! That must be where the Intel code name comes from!" So they publish lists like the one this story linked to, which look authoritative, but are just so much BS.

      Actually, I can't imagine any big company using a Wiccan name for anything. Not after the var [snopes.com]

    • Since there has been plenty of talk about Tejas being a Spanish name, let me throw my 2 bits in as well

      Tejas in Hindi means "irradiating, illuminating light", also likened to "the light of the supreme spirit". When given to a someone to something, the name means someone who has a bright glow of radiance, splendour and glory.

      Read the detailed information about the word here [uchicago.edu] [Universirty of Chicago, Hindi dictionary).

  • Alderwood Manor-Bothell North, WA (Score:3, Interesting)

    by HughsOnFirst ( 174255 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @12:27AM (#9135975)
    North northwest of Kirkland WA
    Famous for being the namesake of the house brand at Costco and the home of Bill Gates.

  • No google? Atlas? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by cft_128 ( 650084 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @12:37AM (#9136043)
    If ever I saw a need for doing basic research before asking slashdot. I don't want to sound that snotty, but not knowing Cascades but having the Willamete and Kalamath rivers? As someone else pointed out the Cascades feed them; any casual glance at a map would have revealed that.

  • Suggestions... (Score:5, Informative)

    by complete loony ( 663508 ) <Jeremy DOT Lakeman AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday May 13, 2004 @12:37AM (#9136046)
    Banias: [adherents.com]
    "The term [Banias] is widely used to identify members of the traditional mercantile or business castes of India... "

    Alderwood: [whynotown.com]
    "Browse real estate and homes for sale by area! Washington State Snohomish County Lynnwood Alderwood"

    Caswell County [caswellnc.com]

    Cascades? [national-park.com]


    • FWIW, "Banias" is close enough to the Spanish word for baths...

      At least they didn't name their next generation product after a big stinky animal that produces copious quantities of cow pies and methane - "Longhorn"...

  • Additions... (Score:5, Informative)

    by zamboni1138 ( 308944 ) * on Thursday May 13, 2004 @12:38AM (#9136052)
    Intel has a lot of bases around Oregon, allow me to help out a little:

    • Alderwood is the name of a street in Portland, if you've ever had to go the FedEx location at the airport, you've been on Alderwood and Cornfoot.

    • Foster is also a street in Portland. The topless bar at 92nd and Foster is quite the hole.

    • Tualain is also a burb of Portland, on the west side, which is where all of the Intel locations are. Large numbers of Intelers probably reside here.

    • Yamhill is also a county in Oregon, very near where most of the Intel locations are (I think all are in Washington county). Lots of wine grapes are made in Yamhill.

    • Prescott is also a street in Portland.

    • Cascades is of course a reference to the cascade range of rock piles, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, and the Three Sisters being a few of the bigger name mounts in the range.

    • Re:Additions... (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Foster is also a street in Portland. The topless bar at 92nd and Foster is quite the hole.

      If I made chips, I'd name them all after nudie bars in New York.

      Goldfinger: The high end enterprise chips like Xeons.

      Vixen: Top of the line consumer chips like the P4.

      Foxes: The older formerly high end chips for desktops.

      Candlewoods: The low end consumer chips like Celerons.

      Port'O Call: The bottom of the line old crusty rejects like the first Pentiums (66 - 75 Mhz).

    • Re:Additions... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Rheingold ( 2741 )

      92nd Street Dancers! Not as bad as the Boom Boom Room (East or West), but nothing to bother visiting... I happen to live about 30 blocks west on Foster.



      And most of the Intel places I know of are in Hillsboro, not Tualatin, although there are a number of high-tech places there, some of which are my customers...

    • Exactly. I go to Oregon somewhat frequently and I am always amused seeing the Intel codenames all over the place. I have some pictures from my most recent trip to Portland.

      Yamhill Street [andrewhitchcock.org]
      Advertisement for rafting on the Willamette river [andrewhitchcock.org]

      As for Cascades, give me a break. As others have said, that should have been obvious if you know the names of all those rivers.
    • "Prestonia" (current Xeon CPU) is missing from the list -- is that a street in Portland as well? Google only finds a town in Kentucky.

  • Alderwood (Score:2, Interesting)

    by hdparm ( 575302 )
    Definitelly this one [caffedarte.com].

    That's what engineers used to stay up all night.

  • Katmocino (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Konster ( 252488 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @12:42AM (#9136081)
    Katmicino was taken from a famous song by Cat Stevens. It's also a small town(the name in the song)just South of Katmandu. I visited Intel in the early 90's and they has this song playing in the elevators and lobby.

    I sit beside the dark
    Beneath the mire
    Cold grey dusty day
    The morning lake
    Drinks up the sky

    Katmocino I'll soon be seeing you
    And your strange bewildering time
    Will hold me down

    Chop me some broken wood
    We'll start a fire
    White warm light the dawn
    And help me see
    Old satan's tree

    Katmocino I'll soon be touching you
    And your strange bewildering time
    Will hold me down

    Pass me my hat and coat
    Lock up the cabin
    Slow night treat me right
    Until I go
    Be nice to know

    Katmocino I'll soon be seeing you
    And your strange bewildering time
    Will keep me home

  • Keeping with the body of water theme... (Score:3, Informative)

    by TechnoPops ( 590791 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @12:55AM (#9136131) Journal
    After some quick Googling, Alderwood [lake-link.com] seems to be a lake in Wisconsin, and Caswell [brainygeography.com] a lake in Mississippi.

  • Intel's name list (Score:2, Redundant)

    by ubiquitin ( 28396 ) *
    Banias - place in Syria where Jesus traveled with his disciples to examine their understanding of who he was.
    Dothan - town in Alabama, USA or A place to the North of Shechem whither Jacob's sons went for pasture for the flocks
    Grantsdale - town in Massachusetts, USA
    Alderwood - dunno?
    Caswell - dunno?
    Tejas - eclectic ecofeminist Witchcraft community
    Merced- river in California, USA
    Klamath - river in Oregon, USA
    Willamette - river in Oregon, USA
    Coppermine - river in Canada
    Katmai - Alaskan river
    Deschutes - river i

  • Missing Codenames (Score:5, Informative)

    by GreenHell ( 209242 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @01:15AM (#9136243)
    This isn't explanations of missing codenames, but rather ones you're missing since I see that you have the Pentium II (Klamath, Deschutes), but not the Celerons from the same era. So, here they are:

    Covington: A city in Kentucky [covingtonky.com], Washington [covington.wa.us], Georgia [cityofcovington.org] (the US state, not the country), Virginia [covington.va.us], Louisiana [covla.com], and Pennsylvania [cityofcovington.org].
    Mendocino: A city in California [yahoo.com]

  • Banias. (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It's simply a river in the Golan Heights.

  • It's pretty simple (Score:5, Informative)

    by scheme ( 19778 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @02:16AM (#9136459)

    Intel picks code names based on geographical locations near the place where the chip is designed. So the chips designed in Oregon have code names taken from places or things in Oregon. Likewise the Pentium-M chips designed in Israel have code names based on locations in Israel.

    • How does that explain Tulsa? Intel is nowhere near there AFAIK.
      • That's where the government sold them the alien technology to make the chip.
      • Intel has a design center in Austin, Texas. Tulsa, Tejas, and Prescott where designed there and Tulsa is a city in Texas. Alternatively it might be named after the more well known city in Oklahoma.
        • You must know your history. Tulsa was a town in Texas [utexas.edu]. It doesn't exist any more. I live near Tulsa, OK, and I wasn't aware of a local Intel presence.

          TULSA, TEXAS. Tulsa was southeast of Wink in southern Winkler County. Though the settlement was a product of the oil discovery of July 16, 1926, in the Hendricks oilfield,qv it never boomed. A townsite was laid out, and several buildings were erected. A Tulsa post office opened on August 20, 1927, with Cora Higgins as postmistress and closed in 1929, when t
    • >> Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems

      Yeah, yeah. But when detention is over and that pretty girl goes home, you're gonna be sorry you've got blisters all over your hand.

  • The Biblical References (Score:3, Insightful)

    by drmerope ( 771119 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @02:17AM (#9136460)
    The biblical codenames correspond to those chips coming from Intel's Engineering Facility in Israel.

  • Intel: Marketing challenged. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @02:27AM (#9136484) Homepage
    To me, the overall meaning is that Intel is not good at marketing.

  • As a former Intel employee... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Brad Siemssen ( 722440 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @03:44AM (#9136752)
    I can authoritatively state that Intel code names are meaningless.

    All Intel code names are names of some geographical place because geographical locations can not be trademarked. There is no inner meaning, that is by design.

    Intel legal has to approve every code name before it is used, to make sure code names don't match up with someone's trademarked name. Because the code names are used in trade press to talk about upcoming products, they are subject to trademark law. Because Intel makes lots of money, they are subject to legal colonoscopy.

    The official process to name something entails the following actions:

    1. Open up MapQuest
    2. Find some geographical names.
    3. Compile the list of names into an email to Intel legal.
    4. Pray Intel legal picks one of the names you suggested.
    5. Name the project whatever Intel legal tells you in the emailed reply. If you're really lucky it will be one you suggested.
    Cheers!
    • This article is exactly like a subthread in a previous Slashdot post [slashdot.org].
      Thanks for providing firsthand experience. We don't get enough of that sometimes. (The process was described to me as an intern there, but it sounds like you've actually been involved with it.)

    • Re:As a former Intel employee... (Score:4, Funny)

      by peripatetic_bum ( 211859 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:31AM (#9139197) Homepage Journal
      Uhhh, as a current employee of intel, I can tell you we release an unladen african swallow from our offices and where-ever it lands, that's our new codename.

      Yeeshh.

    • As a current Intel employee, I've been in a few groups where the code names weren't named after geographical locations. But these were usually exceptions.

      For one project I worked on, the code name started out as "Cezanne" (after the artist, I would assume) but was renamed to a geographical location mid-way through the development cycle. We engineers never understood why, and most of the team still kept using the old name in server directories, passwords, etc. We thought we were rebels... ah, the joys o

      • For one project I worked on, the code name started out as "Cezanne" (after the artist, I would assume) but was renamed to a geographical location mid-way through the development cycle. We engineers never understood why, and most of the team still kept using the old name in server directories, passwords, etc. We thought we were rebels... ah, the joys of youth.

        Likely, Intel legal got wind of the non-conforming name, and decided you needed a "proper" name. I worked on a project where each release was named

  • I think it deserves to be mentioned, for those who aren't from the West (especially the NW), many towns, rivers, and so on inherited their names from the Native American peoples who (used to) live there.

    Tualatin
    Willamette
    Nehalem
    Seattle
    Klamath
    Deschutes
    Yamhill (Yamel)
    Tukwila
    Clackamas
    Potomac (east coast but an Algonquin word nonetheless)
    Nocona

    I'm sure there are more...

    • You may be interested in the Native American meaning of these names:

      Tualatin -- This place
      Willamette -- Where we live
      Nehalem -- Around here
      Seattle -- Where the shadow of the overhead eagle falls
      Klamath -- Our home
      Deschutes -- Here
      Yamhill (Yamel) -- This place
      Tukwila -- The place that is where we are
      Clackamas -- Over here
      Potomac (east coast but an Algonquin word nonetheless) -- Our homeland
      Nocona -- This place

      (Stolen from a National Lampoon bit many years ago.)

  • Jayhawk (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Coos ( 580883 )
    I understand that the codenames are supposed to be geographical and local to the site from which the project ran, but wouldn't it be good if "Jayhawk" broke this rule and actually referred to the online cyberpunk/Shadowrun fiction of the same name? ftp://ftp.cs.pdx.edu/pub/frp/stories/jayhawk/
  • I'm pretty sure this was mentioned on /. before. Banias is a river in northern Israel. Today the area is an Israeli national park with a nice waterfall and an easy hiking trail. Supposedly the Banias was named by the Greeks after their god Pan.
    • It was originally named Panias, for Pan, it morphed to Banias because the indigenous arabs had a hard time pronouncing the letter P.

      Ahh, the silly trivia you learn on school trips.

  • Northwood, (Score:3, Funny)

    by Evoluder ( 669436 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @10:00AM (#9138863)
    I'm not sure about the rest, but Northwood is definitely a pornographic reference to Peter North.
  • Because you can't trademark them. It's that simple.

  • Tualain is a valley (Score:3, Interesting)

    by kingbyu ( 682024 ) on Thursday May 13, 2004 @02:38PM (#9142379) Homepage Journal
    I'm rather disappointed in many of the responses I've seen here. It seems like most people just googled answers, rather than actually knowing. For example, an earlier post said:
    Tualain is also a burb of Portland
    While this is true, I live in Hillsboro along with several thousand other Intel-ites, and Hillsboro is the tualatin valley, which was named after that tualatin river.

    Interestingly enough, as I was taught in elementary school, tualatin is a Native American word meaning lazy or slow moving, as the tualatin river doesn't go very fast. I wonder if Intel thought about this when trying to come up with the name.
  • I work at Intel and the names basically translate to "Is this thing supposed to get so hot?"

    Some of them mean "hey, watch the lights dim when I open MSWord!"

    Another means "This one is really really big, and heavy too."

    There ya go - mystery solved!

  • I haven't figured out the system yet... (Score:3, Funny)

    by raider_red ( 156642 ) on Friday May 14, 2004 @10:04AM (#9150806) Journal
    I haven't figured out their code naming system yet, but I'm sure there's some numeralogical way to add them up to 666.
  • Gee, I haven't been back to Austin for a few years, but that really does describe it pretty well....
  • And he told me they were selected by the primary teams of the local Intel office, and that they usually had geographic names. Banias was named by a team in the Intel Israel office, Barton was named by a team in the Intel Austin office, etc.

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