TECHnalysis Research Services: Forbes Column, September 2, 2020

Facing a recent barrage of criticism and strong competitive challenges, Intel came out swinging at its special event this week, unveiling not only the widely anticipated next generation mobile PC-focused SOC —codenamed Tiger Lake and officially called 11th generation Intel Core processors—but also the surprise launch of its new PC platform architecture brand Evo. In addition, the company incorporated the first iteration of its new Xe graphics architecture as the embedded graphics solution in this initial incarnation of its 11th generation series of chips.

At the heart of these new SOCs (System On Chip, meaning it incorporates several independent components into a larger whole) is a new CPU core based on the company’s Willow Cove architecture. In addition to the typical architectural enhancements that Intel brings to every new generation of CPUs, Willow Cove, as well as the entirely new Iris Xe GPU core, are both distinctive for a couple of important reasons. They’re being built using the company’s second generation 10nm manufacturing process. Additionally, as the company revealed at its Architecture Day event several weeks back, they are the first to take advantage of a new transistor architecture Intel is calling 10 nm SuperFin.

SuperFin is interesting on several levels. Most importantly, the efficiency of its design has allowed Intel to crank up the maximum clock speed on the CPU portion of its highest performing Core i7 chip to an impressive 4.8 GHz. This, in turn, has led to much larger performance boosts from generation to generation than Intel has had in some time. In fact, the company is claiming it to be nearly the equivalent of a node-level transition. That means it’s about the same amount you might expect to see if Intel had moved its process technology down to 7nm—which the company had originally anticipated to have done by now.

Of course, the company hasn’t achieved this, however—hence the criticism Intel has received. But what’s also interesting about SuperFin is that it clearly demonstrates that Intel still has the ability to make chip manufacturing process enhancements that matter. It’s just that they’re in different areas than most people would expect—and, frankly, than what Intel themselves used to emphasize.

Regardless, the real-world performance benefits look to be surprisingly strong, with impressive comparisons both to 10th generation Core processors (codenamed Ice Lake), as well as the latest Ryzen 4800 mobile CPUs from AMD. According to Intel’s benchmarks, the performance improvement for 11th gen Core ranges from about 20% on office productivity to nearly 270% on video editing-type tasks versus both platforms. On pure graphics benchmarks, Intel is claiming a 2X performance improvement versus its previous integrated graphics solutions thanks to the new Xe GPU architecture.

That same architecture and the company’s DL Boost software API efforts are also leading to even more impressive 400-500% improvements in AI functions performed within PC applications versus both previous Intel chips and the latest of AMD’s offerings. At the moment, AI-driven functions are only used modestly in PC applications, but that’s expected to change dramatically over the next 12-18 months.

In addition to the core CPU, GPU, and process enhancements, 11th generation Core chips incorporate integrated support for Thunderbolt 4, WiFi 6, and PCIe Gen 4 for faster connections to internal and external components, as well as an updated version of its Gaussian and Neural Accelerator (GNA). GNA 2.0 offers DSP (Digital Signal Processor)-like functionality, including the ability do things like audio noise reduction during video teleconferencing calls, without impacting the performance of the CPU or GPU.

As important as the 11th gen Core news may have been, however, the biggest surprise of the event was the launch of Intel’s Evo brand—part of the company’s overall brand refinement. Evo, which is the first system brand that Intel has had since Centrino was unveiled in 2003, is based around the second-generation specs of the company’s Project Athena. The goal with Project Athena/Evo is to deliver a high-quality overall PC system experience based on a number of metrics that impact the overall usability of the system. Specifically, all Evo-branded systems must incorporate an 11th generation core CPU, and all the appropriate I/O which that entails, and must boot from sleep mode in less than one second, offer 2x better performance than a 2 year-old premium thin-and-light notebook when unplugged from power, offer more than 9 hours of battery life, and reach 4 hours of battery life after a 30 minute charge. (Unfortunately, systems that incorporate a 3rd party discrete GPU are automatically disqualified from Evo branding.)

At a basic level, Intel’s goal with Evo is to deliver a consistent, high-quality experience that consumers can come to trust. At a deeper level, Evo is Intel’s effort to get its PC industry partners to raise the bar on forward-looking specs that it believes are critical to keeping PCs at the same level of importance in users’ minds that they have recently been. To that end, I was disappointed Intel did not choose to make integrated 5G modems a requirement for this first iteration of Evo. It did, however, discuss the refinement of antenna design and placement in Evo-certified PCs, likely in preparation for the 5G-equipped systems it says it’s still on track to launch with 5G modem partner MediaTek (see “Intel Makes Surprise Pick for 5G PC Modem Partner” for more) in early 2021.

Intel’s efforts with PC vendors seem to be working, as the company said it expects over 20 Evo-certified thin-and-light laptop designs to ship this year and over 150 new PCs coming that will leverage these 11th generation Core parts.

All told, it was an impressive event that highlighted how it’s much too soon to count Intel out, despite its process manufacturing challenges and increasing competition. In fact, if anything, the “paranoia” induced spirit of former Intel CEO Andy Grove rang through loud and clear during this announcement, emphasizing the competitive spirit the company still maintains. At a higher level, the event also served to highlight the renewed emphasis that Intel has put back onto the PC market, after several years of focusing on other areas. Thanks to the pandemic, PCs are enjoying a renaissance, so it’s great to see Intel, Nvidia, and AMD all strengthening their PC chip portfolios, ensuring that we have many more exciting years of PC developments still to come.

Disclosure: TECHnalysis Research is a tech industry market research and consulting firm and, like all companies in that field, works with many technology vendors as clients, some of whom may be listed in this article.

Here’s a link to the original column: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobodonnell/2020/09/02/intel-refocuses-on-pcs-with-evo-platform-brand-and-11th-generation-core/

Forbes columnist Bob O'Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, a market research and consulting firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community.