How to name a product?

[Okjoek]

This is something I constantly see getting thrown around on WAN and other LTT content where they mock the naming and model numbering done to products by their producers. Notably companies like Razor, but more recently Intel and AMD with CPUs.

 

How would you name a CPU or other electronic product like Razor's laptops? Personally I'm a fan of acronyms with some numbers, but as few as possible.

 

 

 

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

This is something I constantly see getting thrown around on WAN and other LTT content where they mock the naming and model numbering done to products by their producers. Notably companies like Razor, but more recently Intel and AMD with CPUs.

How would you name a CPU or other electronic product like Razor's laptops? Personally I'm a fan of acronyms with some numbers, but as few as possible.

Consistency and not naming it the "NEW" model each year an updated version comes out. It's confusing for your average consumer who doesn't know a lot of about it and confuses them between different generations of products or even different product lines. 

[Oshino Shinobu]

Make it simple and obvious. Keep all the codes that need to be explained to the internal or technical names of products, not the consumer facing name. 

 

A simple numbering system that scales with performance works. So the weakest in a product line may be the "Unnamed CPU 1st Gen SKU 1" and the strongest would be SKU 10. For the next generation, name it 2nd gen. Simple and easy to understand how the performance scales. 

[ARikozuM]

I would just do two letters followed year and tier, i.e. Lenovo Thinkpad (TP171) being the ThinkPad year '17, model 1 (top-end). 

[Sauron]

It's Razer for future reference.

 

For a cpu I'd use a numbering scheme that includes the generation and some details about the specs, like the core count, perhaps with some letters that indicate the presence of certain features like hyperthreading - more or less the same way it's done now. Since numbers are not easy to remember for the general public there usually is a commercial name like "i7" as well, which varies wildly since it doesn't really mean anything on its own.

 

For products in general, I think every new product should have a unique name to differentiate it from everything else, including previous iterations of the same thing. A simple way to do it is calling it "product n" where product is the name and n is the "edition" number (for example, "ipad 2" is the second iteration of a product called ipad).

 

As @W-L said I'd try to avoid repeating names with "new" before them as much as possible, it just creates confusion.

[Okjoek]

42 minutes ago, Sauron said:

It's Razer for future reference.

Oh I actually thought about that for a moment before posting. Lol

[Okjoek]

How about this for a CPU model name:

 

AMD CPU 141

 

AMD = Producer.

CPU = What it is.

1 = Generation (priority given because distinguishing generations is incredibly convenient if you can do it right off the bat).

4= cores which is usually the next thing a consumer wants to know.

1= Iteration, within the parameters set earlier in the name.

 

I think that's as short and sweet and "to the point" naming scheme I could think of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[LAwLz]

For CPUs I would probably do something similar to what Intel has actually. I don't get what's wrong with it.

 

i3, i5 and i7 - Product tier. Easy to understand and market.

First number = generation.

Second number = tier. This one I'd actually like if it was the core count instead of the arbitrary one Intel has.

third and fourth number = frequency, but this one is fine if it's an arbitrary number as long as higher frequency = higher clocks. If your CPU is 3.9GHz then don't put the number as 39 at the end. Put it as 70 or whatever sounds good.

Letter suffixes for special SKUs like extra low power ones, or overclockable ones, and so on.

 

Why 4 numbers? Sounds a lot better to say. 4770 sounds a lot better than 477 when you say it out loud.

[NumLock21]

I name it like gigabyte!

 

Ga-x270-am4-ud10 xtreme carbon god like gamer/wifi-ac

[ARikozuM]

4 minutes ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

Step 1. Whatever you're going to name, spell it right.

Right Right Right 2017 Right

[ARikozuM]

1 minute ago, wrathoftheturkey said:

*Rite Rite Rite Rite

 

Do you need some 

?

I can't. It's trademarked.

[Bouzoo]

9 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

I name it like gigabyte!

 

Ga-x270-am4-ud10 xtreme carbon god like gamer/wifi-ac

Absolutely. To differentiate yourself from the filthy casuals, only names like Gigabyte GeForce GTX 980Ti Xtreme Gaming Waterforce Edition work. Nothing else is imortant. 

[Bouzoo]

2 hours ago, LAwLz said:

For CPUs I would probably do something similar to what Intel has actually. I don't get what's wrong with it.

There are few major issues.

i3 - 2C/4T

i5 - 4C/4T, unless you have a laptop, then it can be 2C/4T

i7 - 4C/8T, unless it's on a laptop, then it can be 2C/4T, or x99, where it goes 6C/12T, 8C/16T, etc. (which have a different first number from regular i7s and seem to fool people that they are 1 generation newer), unless you're x299 where you will have 4C/8T again. 

Then we have the letter after the numbers. T, P, M, U, H, HQ, MQ, K, X and many, many more. Also the jump from 3 to 4 digit naming as well. 

Then we have Celerons, then there are special m3 models that go to Surface Pro (don't know what else they are used for). Let's not forget about the G series which are a budget choice. Forgot about the Nxxxx series? Yes, they still exist. Those just come to mind. 

All of that is excluding Xeons which seem to have the most logic in its name system.

 

Is it a bad name system? Yes and no, It could be great, like naming that BMW has which is brilliant, but Intel overcomplicated it to hell and back.

[themctipers]

Product line, year, class, subdivision, special featur (character)

for example, if cpu use 'I' (Intel~)

then the year

i017

then the class

i017-1-6(1-6, as in could be 1, 2, etc)

1 as in celeron

2 as in pentium

3 as in i3

4 as in i5

5 as in i7

6 as in extreme i7

then the subdivision 

i017-6-1-4 (same as before)

1 lowest end

2 bit better

3 good

4 best 

then the special character 

i017-6-4x

i017-6-4k

i014-4-3u

 

it works for me lol

[NumLock21]

 

I heard Lay's potatoes are copyrighted.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Okjoek said:

How about this for a CPU model name:

 

AMD CPU 141

 

AMD = Producer.

CPU = What it is.

1 = Generation (priority given because distinguishing generations is incredibly convenient if you can do it right off the bat).

4= cores which is usually the next thing a consumer wants to know.

1= Iteration, within the parameters set earlier in the name.

 

I think that's as short and sweet and "to the point" naming scheme I could think of.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What if there's more than 9 iterations? There are 4 cores 4 threads cpu and as well as 4 cores 8 threads cpu for example so that could be a bit conflicting

[ARikozuM]

4 minutes ago, deXxterlab97 said:

What if there's more than 9 iterations? There are 4 cores 4 threads cpu and as well as 4 cores 8 threads cpu for example so that could be a bit conflicting

Iterations 1-8 destroyed computers, so they were discontinued, so the naming scheme is your chance, out of 10, of having a PC the next day.

[Guest]

I'd name this: 

i stands for internet

then either 

i3

i5

i7

where i3 will have 2 cores and 4 threads

i5 will have double the cores but same threads and i7 will have double the threads and double the cores from i3

oh wait.. that is so similar

Ok how about I change i to R? R3, R5, R7 where R stands for replaced? oh damn

[Guest]

1 hour ago, NumLock21 said:

I name it like gigabyte!

 

Ga-x270-am4-ud10 xtreme carbon god like gamer/wifi-ac

I hate you, Gigabyte, and MSI Laptops...

[EPENEX]

I'd do it the same way I name all my documents and pictures. I slam down on my keyboard until the filename isn't already took.

[Okjoek]

One of the things that irks me about intel's names is the i3, i5 and i7. 

WTF do those numbers even mean?! Atleast change them to i2, i4 and i8 for core count or something. Unless I'm stupid and they do actually stand for some feature of the product it's just meant to tease the OCD in all of us.

[NumLock21]

15 minutes ago, Okjoek said:

One of the things that irks me about intel's names is the i3, i5 and i7. 

WTF do those numbers even mean?! Atleast change them to i2, i4 and i8 for core count or something. Unless I'm stupid and they do actually stand for some feature of the product it's just meant to tease the OCD in all of us.

I believe 3, 5, and 7 are odd numbers. 

[LAwLz]

9 hours ago, Bouzoo said:

There are few major issues.

i3 - 2C/4T

i5 - 4C/4T, unless you have a laptop, then it can be 2C/4T

i7 - 4C/8T, unless it's on a laptop, then it can be 2C/4T, or x99, where it goes 6C/12T, 8C/16T, etc. (which have a different first number from regular i7s and seem to fool people that they are 1 generation newer), unless you're x299 where you will have 4C/8T again.

I think the problem is that you are trying to derive technical information from a name that is only meant for marketing and easy brand recognition.

 

In the beginning, there were no "i5 means 4 cores and no HT" rules. They were just fairly arbitrary names put on products to somewhat put them into tiers. You know, for easy things like "oh if you want gaming then you want an i5 or higher".

For example Clarkdale were dual core i5s on the desktop.

 

As soon as you start thinking about i3, i5 and i7 as "good, better, best" and not "i3 has this amount of cores, i5 has this amount of threads, and i7 are like this" then all of a sudden it makes perfect sense even across their mobile lineup, and the HEDT lines as well.

 

10 hours ago, Bouzoo said:

Then we have the letter after the numbers. T, P, M, U, H, HQ, MQ, K, X and many, many more. Also the jump from 3 to 4 digit naming as well. 

So how would you name them then? Those letters are suffixes which all mean different things.

4 digit names just sound a lot better when you say them out loud. They messed up by having 3 digits at first, but fixed it and has not gone back since.

 

Can you think of a better way of labeling special versions which has different TDPs, different graphics, different amounts of cores and so on? And again, please bear in mind that the i3, i5 and i7 are meant to be used for marketing to tech-illiterate people. It's meant for people who go into bestbuy and says "I want to type words documents, what computer do I need to do that?" and the seller can say "and i3 would suit you well".

 

10 hours ago, Bouzoo said:

like naming that BMW has which is brilliant

You can't be serious.

BMW has terrible names and it would never work for computers.

 

Just take this as an example.

If I say I have a BMW 1 series then you will have no idea which car I own, because BMW has two version of the 1 series. 5-door hatchback and 3-door hatchback. But not only that, you need an additional number to indicate which engine you got, because for each 1 series car, there are 12 different engines you can have (that are currently produced, they have had more if you just go back a few years). Oh and since a lot of them have the same names even after they get updated, they need to add the year after as well.

So you'd have to say "I have a BMW 1 series. The 2016 116d EfficientDynamics Edition". Just rolls of the tongue doesn't it? Can you honestly tell me what the 116d stands for? The product name is a whole sentence by itself, not to mention that it gives no indication of what other things the car has, such as optional extras.

[Guest]

Disclaimer: not exactly a product, but I see this when people say "4k TV or 4k Monitor". Doesn't matter who made it or anything just as long as it's 4k. I got my 4k monitor the other day. They might not include who made it. This is kind of taken at a different standpoint here as I see this is technology quite a bit.  

 

I would put this under "research and development" when it comes to names. 

 

You could take samples of the general public as well as feedback from other places. I would say it would need to include the experience and knowledge of the person. 

 

Example: Keeping this simple for now. Ultra high definition

Ultra high definition 

A.K.A. 4k and  4096 × 2160 (this range as well under the 4k name and UHD name.) 

 

What do you call the next in line? 

Ultra high definition

Extreme high definition. 

Ultimate high definition. 

Ultimate Ultra high definition.

Ultimate Extreme high definition.

Ultimate Ultimate high definition. 

Until you reach Ultimate Ultimate Ultimate Ultimate high definition and might be called 4x Ultimate definition at that point. Not to include the 5x or 6x Ultimates which are to be released later. 

 

This is meant to be goofy, obviously. I don't ever use ultra high definition. This might be easier for the general public to understand, but doesn't really say much to me. 

 

Now on to 4k. 

1920 x 1080 (2k - 1080p)

2560 x 1440 (2.5k - 1440p) 

4096 x 2160 (4k - 2160p) 

 

If it tricks many in the general public as well as computer enthusiasts as the above example does I would agree the naming schemes aren't that great for many items in the technology realm. 

 

I really think it comes down to doing studies of different levels of people when it comes to technology. 

[AlTech]

Personally this is how I would name CPUs:

[Manufacturer][Brand][Generation][Core count][GHz][Suffix]

 

E.g. AMD Zen 1430K

 

That to me should indicate a 4 core Zen product which clocks in at 3.0GHz and is overclockable.

 

Personally this is how I would name GPUs:

 

[Manufacturer][Brand][Generation][SMs/CUs Enabled][GHz][Revision]

 

E.g. AMD Radeon 136120

 

That to me should indicate it is a Generation 1 AMD GPU which has 36 CUs at 1.2GHz and is the original version.

 

(what an RX 480 should be called imh)