New processor announcements always bring a lot of buzz, but given that Intel is playing catch-up with AMD's Zen 3, it makes sense to push that boat out a little harder at this moment. The soon-to-be-released Rocket Lake-S chip has a whole new look, centered around the halo chip, the Core i9 11900K, and is a very gorgeous package.

Assuming the leaked photos on VideoCardz are legitimate, the angular design with the blue Perspex panel is not the usual processor package. It is not clear from these shots what is going on, but it is clearly not the neat and tidy geometric shape of previous years.

There is a natural progression here from the Core i9 9900K's dodecahedron and the sheer corners of the 10900K. You will notice that this design is consistent with Intel's marketing design changes made late last year. That means we also got a new Intel logo (no swirls) and a new font for the Core brand.

I'm not a big fan of the blue shading on the CORE and prefer the clean look of the regular 11th generation packaging, but to each his own. But to each his own. The final version may not look so ropey, but we will have to wait. The new chips are expected to ship in March, but the exact date is not yet known.

Given that Intel recently had to cancel the elaborate packaging of the Core i9 10900K for shipping reasons, one can't help but wonder if there are two different camps operating at Intel headquarters: one camp that wants to create a halo chip event, and the other camp that wants to create a "halo chip event. camp that simply does not want to put chips on pallets and ship stale air around the world. We will have to see how long it takes for the latter to triumph.