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Product naming when the chips hit the fan:
The courage walks out the door when
the brand identity folks walk in the door.

SANTA CLARA, CA, May 25, 2002. The competition heats up, as Intel unveils its new Itanium® 2 brand microchip, stealing the thunder from AMD's coming-out party for Opteron on Wednesday. Though Intel just slapped a "2" on an existing name, they hope this sequel, formerly code-named McKinley, will be the processor of choice for high-end servers and workstations.

AMD's "Sledgehammer" became "Opteron," and now Intel's "McKinley" becomes "Itanium 2." Once again, evocative code-names are sent packing by bland, anonymous, pseudo-scientific morphoonery. What sort of awkward mating ritual produces such wallflowers? It's a clumsy marketing dance called "the two-step." Step 1: Blend in with the crowd. Step 2: Spend untold millions telling the world you're different.