• The Wall Street Journal , Monday, August 11, 2008 10:30 AM

Intel's forthcoming chips for desktop computers -- based on a design that is code-named Nehalem -- will use the brand name Core that is carried on some existing Intel products. Initial members of the product family based on Nehalem will carry the additional designation i7.

Intel's branding plans attract wide attention, partly because the company often offers computer makers incentives for using brands associated with its products. In the past few years, Intel dispensed with the brand Pentium in favor of Core, a term that reflects the proliferation of multiple calculating engines -- often called microprocessor cores -- on recent products. Intel chips called Core 2 Duo have two microprocessors; Core 2 Quad products have four.

The company says the term is the first in a series of more general indicators of the relative performance of chips -- similar to model numbers on some cars. "We are looking at everything to simplify our brand structure," says Bill Calder, an Intel spokesman.

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