A blog post by Intel’s Bill Calder sums it up perfectly,

“Over the last year or so, Intel has been quietly working behind the scenes taking a hard look at our brand structure and exploring ways to make it more rational and easier to understand. The fact of the matter is, we have a complex structure with too many platform brands, product names, and product brands, and we’ve made things confusing for consumers and IT buyers in the process.”

Since the introduction of Intel’s Core architecture and consequently their “Core 2″ naming scheming, making sense of the nearly four dozen different desktop Core 2 processors alone is a chore. In addition to that we have the Pentium Dual-Core, a basketful of mobile CPU’s, and the numerous technology brands they like to slap on every description possible. Arguably it would be easier learn the countries of the globe before memorizing Intel’s current lineup of products.

In the blog tidbit however, Calder not only promises that Intel’s new Core i# series will be more consumer friendly, but gives us some hints as to where Intel wants to take the lineup.

The Core lineup will expand with the much anticipated Core i5 as a mainstream offering, as well, the market will receive the Core i3 as a budget/ regular consumer level body of processors, which may include the current Core 2 Duos & Quads.

“Over time those [Core™2 Duo and Core 2 Quad, etc] will go away and in its place will be a simplified family of Core processors spanning multiple levels: Intel® Core™ i3 processor, Intel® Core™ i5 processor, and Intel® Core™ i7 processors. Core i3 and Core i5 are new modifiers and join the previously announced Intel Core i7 to round out the family structure”

These “modifiers” are not going to be new brand’s of processors, but identifying markers to help separate and assist the targeted consumers. The current range of Core 2 Duo’s for instance are only marked by “E####”  spanning from the lowest end E4### series, up to the E8###, same with the Quad population, and the Pentium Dual-Core’s. There is no form of separation to easily differentiate to consumers which “family” would best suit their needs. It is based on a numerical system which typically defines what codename the particular CPUs are built on and there is no quick or easy reference guide to look at.

The blog goes further to address the various technologies that Intel currently produces,

“We are changing and transitioning some of the platform brands. Intel vPro technology continues to stand for best in class security and manageability and will henceforth be paired with Intel Core in either Core i5 or Core i7 iterations. Again this wont happen overnight, but beginning next year Intel business client systems will carry either the Intel Core i7 vPro processor or the Intel Core i5 vPro processor name. With this focus on Intel Core, the Centrino processor technology brand will be retired for PCs beginning next year. However, Centrino has tremendous equity as a wireless technology, so we will transition the name to our Wi-Fi and WiMAX products beginning in 2010.”

So there we have it, a look at some treats for consumers in the near future, and hopefully a more common sense division in the product lineups.