WHAT IN GODSNAME IS A SEMPRON

[rms]

http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~86164,00.html

rms

[Yousuf Khan]

rms <rsquires@flashREMOVE.net> wrote:
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

[Robert Myers]

Yousuf Khan wrote: rms <rsquires@flashREMOVE.net> wrote: 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.

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

[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

[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.

[Rob Stow]

lyon_wonder wrote:
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.

Hmmm ... and there I was thinking it would be
a good name for a laxative.

[KR Williams]

In article <10c9sen8rjiac7@corp.supernews.com>,
rob.stow@sasktel.net says... lyon_wonder wrote: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. Hmmm ... and there I was thinking it would be a good name for a laxative.

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. ;-)

--
Keith

[Tony Hill]

On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 14:40:19 GMT, "rms" <rsquires@flashREMOVE.net>
wrote:http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~86164,00.html

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.

-------------
Tony Hill
hilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca

[Yousuf Khan]

KR Williams <krw@att.biz> wrote: Hmmm ... and there I was thinking it would be a good name for a laxative. 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. ;-)

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

[Yousuf Khan]

lyon_wonder <lyon_wonder@yahoo.com> wrote:
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.

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

[George Macdonald]

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 07:16:14 GMT, "Yousuf Khan" <bbbl67@ezrs.com> wrote:
lyon_wonder <lyon_wonder@yahoo.com> wrote: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.There is apparently a pharmceutical company by the name of Sempron, becauseAMD wasn't able to trademark the "Sempron" name by itself, but it couldbrandname 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 "SemperFi", 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??

[Robert Myers]

George Macdonald wrote:

<snip>
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.

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

[KR Williams]

In article <2Jdxc.6140$MH3.5414
@news04.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>, bbbl67@ezrs.com says... KR Williams <krw@att.biz> wrote: Hmmm ... and there I was thinking it would be a good name for a laxative. 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. ;-) 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?

No, first there was "Athlon". ...half a winter Olympic sport.
;-)
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.

I thought a "Forton" was something one slept on, or a programming
language or sumpin'.

--
Keith

[Johannes H Andersen]

Yousuf Khan wrote: KR Williams <krw@att.biz> wrote: Hmmm ... and there I was thinking it would be a good name for a laxative. 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. ;-) 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?

A Semptron sounds like you should handle it with care, or it might go off?

[George Macdonald]

On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 16:21:47 GMT, Robert Myers <rmyers1400@comcast.net>
wrote:
George Macdonald wrote:<snip> 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.A gold star for you, George. Well done. :-).If I mine the vein you have identified, I come up withperformance, power = Athlon, Thoroughbred = fast, a winner, a championvalue = 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!
As to your school motto, I can't help thinking that it would haveelicited an adolescent smirk or two, but then my mind has been pollutedby the ending of Tom Lehrer's song about the Boy Scout motto "BePrepared."

Nah my school days pre-date TW3... and the birth of modern cynicism. Back
then, sodomy was illegal and you could smoke anywhere.:-)
Once you get into *that* line of thinking (and what advertiser doesn'twant you to get into that line of thinking?), of course, a wholedifferent 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? ;-).

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??

[Robert Myers]

George Macdonald wrote:
On Tue, 08 Jun 2004 16:21:47 GMT, Robert Myers <rmyers1400@comcast.net> wrote:George Macdonald wrote:<snip>The Latin sempre or semper is often used for "forever" or "always" as yousay - our school motto was Semper Paratus... which I'm sure is commonenough but here for AMD it seems like it carries the same message as Durondid: lasting, durable, dependable, etc.A gold star for you, George. Well done. :-).If I mine the vein you have identified, I come up withperformance, power = Athlon, Thoroughbred = fast, a winner, a championvalue = 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.
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!

But you're clearly uncomfortable with the enterprise. That's a shame.
Remember when chips were known by numbers? :-).
As to your school motto, I can't help thinking that it would haveelicited an adolescent smirk or two, but then my mind has been pollutedby the ending of Tom Lehrer's song about the Boy Scout motto "BePrepared." 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?
Once you get into *that* line of thinking (and what advertiser doesn'twant you to get into that line of thinking?), of course, a wholedifferent 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? ;-). 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.

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

[Guest]

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.

On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 23:31:39 -0400, Tony Hill
<hilla_nospam_20@yahoo.ca> wrote:
On Mon, 07 Jun 2004 14:40:19 GMT, "rms" <rsquires@flashREMOVE.net>wrote:http://www.amd.com/us-en/Corporate/VirtualPressRoom/0,,51_104_543~86164,00.htmlAccording to this article:http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1607985,00.aspThe "Sempron" is just the next-generation marketing name for the AMDDuron line of chips. Not many details released yet, but my guess isthat it will be a K8-core chip running at lower clock speeds and withless cache and the Athlon64 and Opteron lines.-------------Tony Hillhilla <underscore> 20 <at> yahoo <dot> ca

[Yousuf Khan]

Tony Hill <hilla_nospam_20@yahoo.ca> wrote: 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.

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 Williams]

Yousuf Khan wrote:
Tony Hill <hilla_nospam_20@yahoo.ca> wrote: 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. 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.

Oh, that's perfectly clear! I'm about as impressed by this strategy
as I was about the Celeron 300.

--
Keith

[Yousuf Khan]

K Williams <krw@adelphia.net> wrote: Oh, that's perfectly clear! I'm about as impressed by this strategy as I was about the Celeron 300.

Eh, what can you do? Marketing is marketing.

Yousuf Khan

[George Macdonald]

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 01:31:19 GMT, Robert Myers <rmyers1400@comcast.net>
wrote:
George Macdonald wrote: "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 hostilityfilter...guess it needs some work. "Value" processors cost less.Everybody knows that, don't they? Don't want to insult people... theremust be something about the processor that's acceptable that justifiesits being sold at a lower price. Sensible people don't expect somethingfor nothing, after all.It does the things you need it to do fast enough, and gets whatever youneed to do done, it just doesn't do it _unnecessarily_ quickly. Aprocessor for people who wear sensible shoes. Sir, if you are the sortof person who thinks that wearing sensible shoes is not "cool," then youprobably 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 formessage-shaping had been discovered in a timely fashion.

I dunno - I could never, in a zillion years, come up with err,
bunny-men.:-)
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!But you're clearly uncomfortable with the enterprise. That's a shame.Remember when chips were known by numbers? :-).

A letter+number was fine with me.
As to your school motto, I can't help thinking that it would haveelicited an adolescent smirk or two, but then my mind has been pollutedby the ending of Tom Lehrer's song about the Boy Scout motto "BePrepared." 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 thatpopular misinterpretation of the meaning of the theory of relativity,egged along by Freud and subversive influences like Bloomsbury haddestroyed Western civilization before the first World War. ;-). Eventhe conservative holdouts who tend toward things like study of theclassics and who like to use phrases like _modus_ponens_ in the courseof justifiying their world view should have realized that it was all inwith the publication of Gödel's dour conclusions, but it seems to be inthe nature of conservatives not to acknowledge change. If those peoplehad had a sense of humor, they would have seen it all coming with thepublication of Lewis Carroll's recondite treatises on absurdity.

No need to get intellektchul...
Oh, wait. You said _modern_ cynicism. How is that different fromregular old cynicism? Are you saying that Great Britain of the sixtieswas even more degenerate than, say, the Weimar Republic?

Yes well I'm talking about the general population and its attitudes - not
some brain stroking elite minority. Seems like after WWII, there was a
fresh new feel to everything -- today is better than yesterday and tomorrow
will be.... -- which all fell apart in the late 60s. On Great Britain of
that time, I've heard "so wonderfully decadent".<shrug>
Once you get into *that* line of thinking (and what advertiser doesn'twant you to get into that line of thinking?), of course, a wholedifferent 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? ;-). 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.Just so. My previous post was to point out that we were being made apart of a similar exercise. We know the name, now we're just dying toknow the details.As Randy Newman said of LA, "I love it."

I wonder what he thinks of it now??

Rgds, George Macdonald

"Just because they're paranoid doesn't mean you're not psychotic" - Who, me??

[Robert Myers]

George Macdonald wrote:
On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 01:31:19 GMT, Robert Myers <rmyers1400@comcast.net> wrote:George Macdonald wrote:

<snip>
"Always there when you need it" is probably the right interpretation,though. Who knows where you might be now if this hidden talent formessage-shaping had been discovered in a timely fashion. I dunno - I could never, in a zillion years, come up with err, bunny-men.:-)

Who knows what anyone might have done, faced with such a task: how to
advertise CPU's in a SuperBowl half time spot.

I think you underestimate yourself. If you applied the same analytical
tools to the problem you'd apply to anything else, I'd rate you as a
reasonable bet to get there.

Think about what's going on. You want people to become conscious
decisionmakers in purchasing of CPU's. Nobody is going to feel
confident in making a decision about something that terrifies them, and
the commodity in question involves a level of technological
sophistication that should terrify most anyone.

Not only that, this thing that gets so much attention looks so small and
inconsequential. How do you get people to grasp how much is packed into
such a tiny space without intimidating them? Bunny suits in the clean
room. A masterstroke, but far from a random shot.

<snip>
... If those peoplehad had a sense of humor, they would have seen it all coming with thepublication of Lewis Carroll's recondite treatises on absurdity. No need to get intellektchul...

Sorry. I've never really mastered the art of surfaces.
Oh, wait. You said _modern_ cynicism. How is that different fromregular old cynicism? Are you saying that Great Britain of the sixtieswas even more degenerate than, say, the Weimar Republic? Yes well I'm talking about the general population and its attitudes - not some brain stroking elite minority. Seems like after WWII, there was a fresh new feel to everything -- today is better than yesterday and tomorrow will be.... -- which all fell apart in the late 60s. On Great Britain of that time, I've heard "so wonderfully decadent".<shrug>

Whistling past the graveyard. Think how fresh everything would have
seemed after a nuclear winter.

<snip>
As Randy Newman said of LA, "I love it." I wonder what he thinks of it now??

Since the original song appeared in tandem with a politically-incorrect
and "snarky" song about short people, I never knew how I was supposed to
take it in the first place. I happened to live in LA at the time, and I
did love it, even though it would have taken a seriously unaware person
not to grasp how close to apocalypse the city teetered. LA's heart of
darkness, as in Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles, arrived well ahead of
the sixties. More cultural irony: "Leave it to Beaver" and B52's being
produced practically within a line of sight. Sorry. There I go again.

I'm stretching a point, but once you've gotten used to men in bunny
suits advertising CPU's in half time spots on American football, your
mind should be pretty limber. You can do terrible things with
computers, or you can do fun and exciting things. On balance, I'm
pretty optimistic about computers and the human imagination, even
keeping in mind the entire, and fairly terrifying, range of
possibilities. If men in bunny suits make the enterprise (and, in my
mind, desirable mental habits that go along with it) less intimidating
and more desirable, I'm in favor of it.

If nothing else, since you are partial to AMD, the fact that AMD can
indulge in flights of fancy like "Sempron" should please you, even if
you are reluctant to admit it. :-).

RM