As most will know, on April 6, 2021, Intel announced we will have the 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Ice Lake generation launch. While that may seem like a long name, it is needed since we had the 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Cooper Lake Launch in June of 2020. As is industry practice, Intel has been messaging its launch date using junk food for quite some time.
3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Ice Lake Launch Symbology
You may have seen, it is now common industry practice to use “junk food” as a way to message launch dates. For example, the recent AMD EPYC 7003 Milan launch date was shown by the “Milan Milano” as we discussed in AMD EPYC 7003 Date Set for Milan.
Intel is a large organization that can bring such complexities as launching the 3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable series twice. Since the first version codenamed “Cooper Lake” launched last year (review of a Cooper Lake system here to learn more.) By simply changing the “3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Cooper Lake” to “3rd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Ice Lake” and looking for both in a junk food product, we can see Intel is using Cheetos to coordinate the industry around its launch.
Cooper lake launched on June 18 or “6/18”, and Ice Lake is set to launch on April 6, or “4/6”. As can be seen in the diagram above which only highlights some of the symbology being used by Intel. Cheetos are, of course, made by Frito-Lay a subsidiary of PepsiCo. Both have “i”s in their names which coincidentally is the first letter in “Intel”. Both Frito-Lay and Intel also make chips. Clearly, this is all intertwined.
Final Words
We hope this helps shed light on something that is not often discussed: how chip companies use junk food to message major product launch dates in the server industry.
All fun aside, the big news is that Ice Lake is finally “launching” on April 6, 2021. These are chips that have been seriously delayed by the 10nm manufacturing debacle at Intel. We do not use that term lightly, but if you miss more than a generation of product, at some point one has to call it what it is. Ice Lake Xeons will usher in new features, PCIe Gen4, and more memory channels at Intel putting it clearly on track to compete with AMD EPYC 7002 Rome. At STH, we have racks of Ice Lake servers but are holding to the review embargo date set by Intel and messaged via Cheetos. Expect more launch coverage on April sixth.
You forgot to sign off with “Q”
Why not hypertension medications?
This part: “Intel has been messaging its launch date using junk food…”
I read it at first as “lunch date”.
Seems we’re kind of early for April Fools silliness, aren’t we? And do the chip makers really use junk/snack foods as their “way” of leaking release dates? O professionalism, what have they done to you.
Is this an actual thing, or is STH trying once again to be edgy and failing miserably?
Complains about junk food. Shares last name with oft-maligned vegetable . Coincidence?
Honestly I appreciate these, sometimes you need a good chuckle out of the blue. Been visiting the site everyday for about two years now, have to say it definitely caught me off guard. Nothing wrong with letting the STH team have a bit of fun.
I enjoy these too. STH goes into insane depth on server reviews. If I get a chuckle out of this and they get to have a little fun, what’s not to like. If you can’t find the humor in this and the Milan-o one, then you need to relax. It’s STH’s profession to garner readers, so “professionalism” seems high. I don’t even read ITpro’s reviews or any other site because they’re all paid garbage reviews compared to STH.
Loved the Milan-o one, the Cheeto one is a bit of a stretch but don’t stop trying
I don’t see this being done with malice, unlike some of the comments.
I’m a longtime STH reader. Since they don’t do like 30 news posts a day, you can actually see the experiments they are running. Their Milan-o one was all over Twitter. They’d be dumb not to try another.
I think the Milan-o was funnier, but this is way better than what a lot of sites did with just saying April 6 is the day. You’ve gotta appreciate creativity and I know this just because of Cheetos now.
I think it was funny and done in good humor, Cliff. Thanks for a smile!
Very well done, love how you guys are poking a hole into how serious these companies take themselves and their launches.