Thursday, July 30th 2020
Intel Overhauls its Corporate Identity, Registers New Product Logos, "EVO Powered by Core" Surfaces
EVO is likely to become a prominent client-segment processor brand by Intel as it wades into the post-Core product generation. Intel just registered a large tranche of trademarks and logos with the USPTO. It begins with a re-design of Intel's corporate identity from the ground-up, including the company's main logo. A clean new typeface replaces the one Intel has been using since the original Core i7 from a decade ago. The brands are placed with simple geometric backgrounds with fewer color gradients. The brand extension (i3/i5/i7/i9) is located at the bottom-right corner.
The distinction between two logos, "EVO Powered by Core" and just Core i3, caught our eye. We speculate that EVO could refer to a new category of Hybrid processors (chips with more than one kind of CPU core), and could debut with "Alder Lake." The non-EVO chips could have only one kind of CPU core, and given the timing of this trademark application (July 2020), we expect it to debut only with the processor that succeeds "Tiger Lake," as notebooks based on the new chips may already be under mass-production. In any case, it's only a matter of the notebook ODM (eg: Quanta, Compal, Foxconn, etc.,) placing a sticker on the product or its packaging. It's also interesting to note the "powered by Core" subtext in the EVO branding. Intel could be using this to transition between the two brands.
Update 20:02 UTC: Added registration data from US Patent Office:
Sources:
momomo_us (Twitter), Core i3 logo (Justia Trademarks), EVO Powered by Core logo (Justia Trademarks)
The distinction between two logos, "EVO Powered by Core" and just Core i3, caught our eye. We speculate that EVO could refer to a new category of Hybrid processors (chips with more than one kind of CPU core), and could debut with "Alder Lake." The non-EVO chips could have only one kind of CPU core, and given the timing of this trademark application (July 2020), we expect it to debut only with the processor that succeeds "Tiger Lake," as notebooks based on the new chips may already be under mass-production. In any case, it's only a matter of the notebook ODM (eg: Quanta, Compal, Foxconn, etc.,) placing a sticker on the product or its packaging. It's also interesting to note the "powered by Core" subtext in the EVO branding. Intel could be using this to transition between the two brands.
48 Comments on Intel Overhauls its Corporate Identity, Registers New Product Logos, "EVO Powered by Core" Surfaces
It's a bit nostalgic, the new font is similar to the one that hey tused before the core/pentium D era. I just don't know if that slight reminiscence to the pentium 4 sticker is really a good thing :
Although it seems like it was used for some pentium III as well :
That's how downfalls begin.
Just learn from IBM.
Now that I look back on things, Intel's first 10nm issues surfaced July 2015. The fact that it's still a problem five years later means that they've been screwing up CONTINUOUSLY for 4+ years.
I think I underestimated how frickin' stubborn and tech-illiterate Intel's board is. I'd like to revise that 'decade' comment to five years, starting three years ago when it was really clear that their 10nm wasn't going to work, and their 14nm was suffering the beginning of what has turned out to be 3 years of supply shortages.
In the short term, it is clear that Intel is screwing up their process. But a giant pile of $20 Billion+ can turn things around, as long as the board + executives do the right thing with it. Based on other companies (IBM, Sears, etc. etc.) that have entered long periods of decline... Intel could easily remain giant for a decade to come, coasting entirely on its cash pile alone. And who knows? Maybe Intel really can turn things around and return to dominance.
I suggest watching all three parts before judging.
People forget they were in the technology, something that they worked to evolve from on a five to ten year cadence , things like prefetch , precompute and various memory technology that they would have worked to evolve either needed massive rework or a lot of mitigative circuits, ASICS take a lot of effort to change in short time spans so does r and d effort.
What I sense in Intel is an air of internship which should have been shrugged off in a corporation of this seismic proportions. They must be up to something...
They're definitely onto something. But Intel CPUs don't really have anything fashionable to connect to yet. Xeon + FPGA is too niche. The GPU project is key: it needs to be useful enough that people actually care when it comes out. Intel probably should split its cores into AMD-style chiplets for better yields, and use their EMIB technology to connect them together into bigger arrays that no one else can do. I dunno how many years Intel is away from doing this (or even if they're attempting to build something like this).