Intel to drop C word from Atom chip brand

Not Centrinos any more

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

14th August 2008 13:28 GMT

Intel has scratched the 'Centrino' off its Atom product line labels, the chip maker has confessed.

Intel launched Atom moniker back in April, initially as a line of CPUs - codenamed 'Silverthorne' - for handheld internet tablets, all of which were intended to be bundled with the 'Paulsbo' chipset and go out under the Centrino Atom brand as a platform package codenamed 'Menlow'.

In June, Intel launched a couple more of the CPUs - the 'Diamondville' variety - for netbooks and compact desktops. These sell simply as Atom.

Now, so too will the MID offerings, part of a process - an Intel spokesman told IDG - of "simplifying and coalescing our efforts around Atom as the single brand for Internet devices".

And, we'd add, to avoid any confusion with those other Centrinos, the laptops - products far more widely associated with the C word than MIDs are, or were ever likely to be.