A filing at the US Patent and Trademark office unearthed this week seems to indicate that a modest branding refresh is on the cards for processor giant Intel. The application for new marks shows off a new logo style for their Core processor lineup which should be prevalent on retailer shelves in the not-to-distant future, and also adds a new name to their brand stable: EVO.

Intel's updated branding would eschew the current rounded logos of the Core lineup in favour of a more angular approach, but probably retain (and perhaps even further emphasise) the blue shade colouring. They should eventually encompass i3 to i9 ranges, but for now the logged selection is rather limited.

It has been speculated that the EVO branding will be used to differentiate between standard and the new hybrid processor design approach known as colloquially as big.LITTLE. The approach partners one large CPU core with multiple smaller cores for dynamic load balancing among mixed workloads, with the aim of greatly improving power efficiency. Alder Lake will be their first desktop architecture to utilise this style of design, likely some time in the latter half of 2021. Derivative Lakefield SoC's are appearing in mobile systems this year but presumably won't utilise the new EVO mark.

Intel of course wouldn't be the first technology manufacturer to opt for EVO in their branding. Samsung utilise it to differentiate their performance-oriented consumer SSDs from professional drives, while Cooler Master have valued it as an identifier for evolutionary developments to mainstream CPU coolers. Intel will be in theory be able to adapt it as required during any intermission period between two design paradigms, and quietly drop it as an when more striking wording is adopted.

SOURCE: @momomo_us, Justia New Trademark Listings for July 23rd 2020, USPTO