I recently received this from one of my readers in reference to a Wikipedia article that describes where Intel derives its secret code names for its chips and projects. It seems like Intel takes a map and throws a dart at it, and where the dart hits is the next secret name. Far fetched, you say? Not really. In looking over the list of names it seems that quite a few come from the area in which Intel has a presence like in Santa Clara, CA, Oregon, and Israel.

Some of the names of interest like Santa Rosa, Alviso, Sonoma, Merced, Mendocino, Montara, and Napa are simply derived from cities located in or near the Bay Area where Intel is headquartered. But some like Yonah are from parts of Israel. There are some code names like Clovertown, Kentsfield, Yorkfield, Whitefield, Sossaman that have no known reference and were probably just made up in the labs. Maybe. No one except Intel knows for sure.

Even Microsoft used the code name Katmai for its SQL server, which is a mountain in Alaska. Intel used the name for its own Pentium chips back a few years ago.

For a complete listing of all the code names, check out Wikipedia here.

Comments welcome.

Tags: intel, microsoft, code name, secret, location