To avoid a trademark dispute, Intel has changed the code name of Tanglewood, a version of its Itanium expected to come out after 2005 that will contain several processor cores, to Tukwila, an Intel spokesman said. Since it is just a code name, Intel decided to switch rather than fight.
The old name is associated with the famous Tanglewood Music Centre in Massachusetts, said an Intel spokesman. Many of the engineers working on the project came to Intel from Massachusetts-based Digital Equipment and live and work in the state.
Tukwila is a town in Washington about 15 minutes away from Seattle. The mayor's name is Steven Mullet.
Intel typically selects geographic place names for code names to avoid copyright and trademark disputes. Many of the code names derive from towns in the Pacific Northwest, but other names are creeping in. The Pentium M chips carry Israeli code names such as Dothan and Banias because the chips are designed in Israel.
Other companies follow similar practices. In the late 1990s, Advanced Micro Devices derived some of its code names from characters in the cartoon "The Land Before Time." An engineer's kid liked the show and got to name the chips, according to sources. Later, it paid homage to American muscle cars like Corvette and Mustang.
The car manufacturers, however, complained and now the chips are given code names such as Newcastle.
Although sales of Itanium chips were slow for the first two years, there has been an upswing in the market. Intel president Paul Otellini said in November that over 100,000 Itanium chips will have been shipped by the end of 2003.
