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Comment by rjknight | Hacker News Reader

Anyone else think that "Iris" is a fairly obvious reference to "retina" displays, indicating that Intel expects devices which come with Haswell/Iris to include retina-standard displays?

(It has been years since I've commented on a hardware thread, I had forgotten how much fun this kind of codename Kremlinology can be)

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Intel seems to be applying the ^TM to Iris, so I'd think it's intended to be a product name rather than a code name. Intel is so obsessive with trademarks that it seems likely that they acquired the trademark from the ruins of Silicon Graphics' line of graphics workstations.

Intel usually chooses seemingly-random geographic features for their code names. Coordinating the two deals (Apple and the Iris trademark) for the secret pleasure of having a subtle code name seems uncharacteristically subtle.

They're not seemingly random geographical features: they're usually geographical features associated with the Intel lab that did most of the lifecycle of development. With tick-tock, they have a new chip each year. I believe every chip development takes 6 years, so they have three labs concurrently working on things at various stages.

Yonah (Core Solo and Core Duo) - Intel Israel

Tejas (planned Pentium 4 successor; cancelled) - Intel Bangalore

Willamette (Pentium 4) - Intel Oregon

Nehalem - Nehalem River in Oregon

Here's a whole bunch of etymologies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_codenames

OK, so Intel codenames are seemingly random geographic features usually within 1000 miles of the design team. But the point is the codenames show no evidence of coordination with the features of the chip itself.

We can assume the new MacBooks will come with Haswell. Perhaps the Iris graphics will be driving the Retina display? Right now the Retina MacBook comes with Ivy Bridge and a separate GPU although I don't know if it uses integrated graphics to drive the display.

The 13" Retina MBP uses integrated graphics only.

rMBPs have switchable graphics and will use both the IVB GPU and the nVidia GPU to drive the display. The IVB GPU is noticeably choppy on some types of scrolling when you've got it set to 1680x1050 equivalent or higher, so the Haswell improvements will be welcome for newer buyers.

The 13" doesn't have switchable graphics though, right? That's what has stopped me from upgrading so far. Hoping that June brings good news.

Right, 15" only.

Optimistic news sites and forum posters seem to expect that the Air will get Retina treatment this year. That seems extremely unlikely to me. Even it if were cost/tech viable, it would significantly erode the differentiation between the Air and Pro lines.

Is a safe bet for both the new 11" and 13" Airs to get the non-Iris GT3 part? Or is the 11" in weedy GT2 territory?

Showing my age here, but when I think "Iris" I think of SGI, not Apple.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/SG...

Someone needs to start selling "Sclera" computer cases.

Don't you think that's kind of cornea?

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