Re: Why don't they call a Pentium III a Septium processor?

For those of us whose memory goes farther back, the Pentium was preceded 
by the 486, preceded by the 386, preceded by the 286, preceded by the AT, 
preceded by the XT, preceded by what was simply called a PC.

These names don't necessarily have any logic behind them, they are 
whatever Intel thinks will sound good to potential customers.  I remember 
when the 586 model chip was going to come out, most people expected "586" 
to be the name.  But they chose "Pentium", perhaps because using a number 
was getting to sound sort of geek-ish.  They may have also foreseen the 
day when numbers like 686 would become viable clock speeds, which might 
have generated some confusion.

Then the question was what to call the 686 model.  My memory (not 
authoritative) is that the connotations of the "Hex" in "Hexium" were not 
considered to be good, and the Pentium had been very successful (despite 
the famous division bug in the early chips), so they decided to go 
with "Pentium II".  And then Pentium III.  

I just went to www.intel.com and saw this press release: 
http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/dp062800.htm which says 
that the next chip is being called the "Pentium 4" (not Pentium IV, but Pentium 
4).  As is usual with such things, I'm sure marketing considerations were more 
important than logic in coming up with the name.

Allan Harvey
"Don't blame the government for what I say, or vice-versa."