Naming a product is a simple but difficult task.
If you're the kind of startup that "shoots one shot at the other track", it's not a big problem to give the product a casual name, considering that the life span of the entire company may not be as long as the life cycle of their first product. However, for those brands that develop steadily every year and launch a large number of products at the same time, how to design a set of scientific product model specifications, so that users can distinguish the type, positioning, model and iterative relationship of the product at the first time, has become a rather complex problem.
Image courtesy of Intel
As the hardest hit area of the "chaotic and evil nomenclature", the product model naming of PC products can be said to be "too many to book", and even brands like NVIDIA, which is convenient for users to spend money, have made "stacked armor" things such as the RTX 4070Ti SUPER. As for Intel and AMD, the naming of their products is even more complicated:
In the 10th Gen Core mobile platform, Intel named the processor of the low-voltage platform according to the number of EU of the Iris core graphics in the processor, bringing a product model similar to the "1165G7", which is not compatible with the desktop platform and the mobile high-performance platform. Although this practice confuses the specific configuration of the i5 and i7 in the Iris EU high and low specs, it at least gives consumers a chance to compare.
AMD, on the other hand, is different:
When Ryzen was first launched, AMD adopted a naming system of Ryzen + Grade (one bit) + Algebra (one bit) + product number (three digits) + suffix (X/G), such as the famous Ryzen R7-2700X and Ryzen R5 2400G. But as the architecture behind Ryzen became more complex (Zen2/Zen3/Zen3+/Zen4/Zen5), AMD introduced a new naming method to Ryzen + Rank (one bit) + Year (one bit) + Rank (one bit) + Architecture (one bit) + Features (one bit) + Letter suffix for TDP (e/C/U/HS/HX).
Image source: AMD
This way of naming simple problems directly breaks the user's long-standing "size-by-size" comparison, even higher than the case of smaller numbers but stronger product updates. In the context of Intel's announcement of a reorganization of the mobile platform product line next door, it can be said that it is rare for a brand like AMD to go all the way to the black.
However, judging from the recent news, AMD seems to have "misunderstood".
Simpler names for more confusion
Some time ago, the configuration page of the ASUS Vivobook S 16 series notebook was unexpectedly exposed. Although it was said that it was taken off the shelves soon, fast-eyed netizens still found the key part of it: the computer is equipped with AMD's yet-to-be-unannounced, new naming processor - AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 170.
Obviously, AMD wants to replicate the route of Intel Ultra and highlight AMD's AI capabilities with a dedicated product line: AMD Ryzen AI is roughly equivalent to "Intel Core Ultra", but the next 9 HX 170, we need to discuss it by category.
The digital bits are very simple, and if nothing else, it will continue the product positioning of Ryzen 3/5/7/9, and the AI 9 is naturally a relatively high-end product among them. Considering that AMD also had the suffix HX in the past, HX here should also represent the highest TDP calibration.
Image source: ASUS
But the problem lies with this 170. Judging from the current information, Xiaolei believes that the "1" of this 170 should be a product algebra or year marker, and next year's new products will start with 2. As for the back 70, if it is a specific computing power, then when it breaks through the three-digit number in the future, the name of the chip may return to the complex four-digit era, such as AI 9 HX 3125. In contrast, I think that 70 is just another product family number, which means the second digit in AMD's 2023 serial number (1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8), and the last digit is product positioning (0/5).
But this raises another problem: AMD often introduces different processes in the same generation, and the "new" nomenclature doesn't indicate where the process is located. Looking at it this way, this new AI number is even worse than the old "7640U" numbering method. And this is just the naming method of Ryzen's "main line", according to the exposed Lenovo new product introduction page, commercial products still retain the Ryzen PRO 8040/8050 naming system, and the scene was very chaotic for a while.
Image source: Lenovo
In other words, AMD has only completed the task of "changing the name", and the task of "making the product name easy to understand" is not on AMD's radar.
It's never just the name that has been changed
But if we look at it from the perspective of practicality and economic cost, AMD's brand upgrade actually has its own reasons. If the user has the pursuit of computer performance, he will naturally be able to figure out the relationship between the products of "7950", "7640U" and "PRO 8040", and the brand upgrade will not mean much to them, but for the average consumer, the simplified identifier such as AI 3/5/7/9 can indeed greatly reduce the threshold for novice users to choose Ryzen processors. Besides, starting from the first generation again, this is indeed in line with the future direction of Intel Core.
Besides, AMD also needs to be involved in the concept of AI.
In terms of pure gaming performance, AMD's processors have made significant achievements in multi-core performance, power efficiency, and integrated GPU performance. However, with the explosive growth of AI and machine learning applications, the competition in the processor market is no longer just about hardware performance, but also about whether it can be optimized and supported for AI applications.
Image source: AMD
While AMD has made significant achievements in the processor market, the company faces some notable shortcomings in the AI space. First, AMD has invested less in a dedicated hardware and software ecosystem for AI and machine learning than rival Nvidia. NVIDIA's CUDA platform powers powerful AI computing for its GPUs, and AMD has yet to launch a comprehensive solution that can match it. In addition, AMD's GPUs, while excelling in gaming and general graphics tasks, often lag behind NVIDIA's professional AI hardware when it comes to deep learning and complex machine learning algorithms.
Second, AMD is also less active than Intel and Nvidia in terms of marketing and partnerships. The two companies have established a strong foundation in the AI space through extensive partnerships and go-to-market strategies. While AMD has started working with some tech giants, such as Google Cloud, it is still lacking in terms of penetration and influence in the overall AI market.
By introducing AI naming, AMD is undoubtedly trying to strengthen consumer awareness of the capabilities of its products in this area.
The change in branding and naming strategy is just the first step, and AMD needs to go beyond the rebranding and further drive technology innovation to optimize processor architectures and improve AI computing efficiency to ensure that its products can meet the growing demand for AI computing.
Image source: AMD
In addition, AMD also needs to launch its "third-party ecosystem" to cooperate with the AI and gaming industries to provide the soil for AI capabilities under the AMD architecture to take root and sprout, so that AMD users do not need to miss out on revolutionary AI applications because of the "recommended use of NVIDIA graphics cards".
At the end of the day, AMD's goal is not only to remain competitive in the processor market, but also to be a leader in AI technology. This change in naming strategy is not only redefining its products, but also redefining AMD's identity as a technology innovator. In the future, with the further development of AI technology, whether AMD's strategy can succeed will directly affect its position and future development direction in the global semiconductor market.
Undoubtedly, this change of AMD is a positive response to changes in the market and a manifestation of its search for new growth points in the global technology competition. Only by constantly adapting to changes in the market can we ensure that we will not be eliminated in the future wave of technology, and this move by AMD is preparing for the future competition.
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