Two companies (AMD and Intel). Two chips. One 'saintly' code name.

Earlier today, I received an e-mail from an Intel spokesperson reminding me that the vPro version of Intel's mobile processors are on tap (here's the news from News.com's Tom Krazit). From a branding perspective, it's a double whammy for Intel (and customers who might think there's more to a brand than meets the eye).

Whenever I get the chance, I remind ZDNet's readers that the Centrino brand is nothing more than a brand-name that Intel conjured up and heavily marketed to increase the likelihood that instead of mixing and matching Intel's mobile processors with third party WiFi radios (eg: from Atheros), system manufacturers would buy their WiFi radios from Intel as well. In order to qualify for the Centrino sticker, a notebook computer had to include three Intel-based componets: a mobile pentium processor, Intel's chipset for that processor, and Intel's WiFi radio.

The original Centrino branding campaigns created a mystique around the Centrino brand as if it was something end-users had to have in order to guarantee WiFi interoperability in public and private hotspots. In all actuality though, all that was really needed was compliance with the 802.11 (WiFi) standards. Back in 2003, I asked if a Centrino is a must have, or will a simple Pentium M do? Not happy about that column, Intel responded, but I remained unconvined and still do. One proof point: When Intel later shipped mobile Celeron-based notebooks that technically didn't qualify to be Centrinos, was the market to interpret that as meaning that Celeron-based notebooks weren't as good in hotspots as were the mobile Pentium-based ones? 

Earlier this year, Intel rolled out a similar brand called vPro and I captured a vPro-branded HP desktop in action on video. Like Centrino and interoperability, it's Intel's hope that users will want vPro because of the manageability it has to offer (I discuss the manageability features in detail in the aforelinked coverage).  But the reason I say vPro is a "similar brand" to Centrino is that in order for a system to get the vPro brand, it has to include Intel's Core 2 Duo microprocessor, the Q965 chipset, and Intel's 82566 Gigabit Ethernet technology. But under the hood, the truly operative part that delivers the manageability capabilities that IT managers might be after is the Q965 chipset.

According to Altiris, a company that was recently acquired by Symantec and one of the first to tap the Q965 chipset's management capabilities, the same features that are available from a management perspective to a vPro-branded system are also available to a system with the Q965 chipset. So, as with Centrino, you can see how if end-users begin to demand the vPro brand because they associate it with some unique functionality, it can help drive the sales of another component: Intel's Gigabit Ethernet technology. 

This is why I say "double-whammy." Now that Intel is releasing its "Centrino Pro" brand (a combination of Centrino and vPro), it's two brands (not technologies) lopped together into one box, both of which are designed to sell more Intel networking componentry. Even so, the merits of having the management capabilties that you get from a vPro-branded system are worth checking into. I was pretty impressed.

But more interesting to me is the code name issue. The code name for Intel's Centrino Pro lineup is Santa Rosa. Where have we heard "Santa Rosa" before.  You don't have to go back very far. In fact, just to my last blog post where "Santa Rosa" is also the code name for a family of Opteron processors from AMD. Saintly chips (as in "Santa")? Maybe. Confusing? Definitely!