Intel is expanding 12order ‘Alder Lake’ CPU series with two new product lines, aimed at thin and light laptops for general users. After launching the generation with High-end desktop CPU last year and announced High-end gaming laptop CPU at CES in January, Intel is now poised to tackle a much larger segment of the market. The ‘Alder Lake’ generation combines heterogeneous X86 and E cores (for power and efficiency) for the mass laptop market for the first time, along with Intel Xe graphics.
Based on Intel, more than 250 laptop models will launch in 2022 using these CPUs. These will include 2-in-1, detachable devices and devices with foldable screens like Asus ZenBook 17 Folding which announced at CES. Performance is expected to be significantly improved in workloads that benefit from high core and thread counts, such as 3D rendering, photo editing, and general productivity while multitasking.
The P-series is a new entry in Intel’s usual hierarchy and will address the 28W segment “for enthusiasts of thin and light devices”. Six models were announced, on Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 levels. The increase in thread count is supposed to deliver enthusiast-grade performance and improve productivity. While the Core i3-1220P has two P cores with Hyper-Threading and eight E cores, the total goes up to six P cores with Hyper-Threading and eight E cores on the top-end Core i7-1280P. Laptop OEMs will also be able to take full advantage of the four Thunderbolt ports and the partially integrated Wi-Fi 6e.
The refreshed U series will be available in two different package sizes to address the 9W segment for ultra-portable devices and the 15W TDP segment for everyday users. There are seven new models in each category, from the Celeron (one P core, four E cores, no hyperthreading) to the Core i7 (two P cores, eight E cores, 12 threads total).
Intel says its latest CPUs use the same Thread Director feature as the previously released 12order Generation CPUs. This dynamically assigns workloads between P cores and E cores based on power and performance requirements, and is built into Windows 11. Windows 10 is also compatible, but not deeply optimized. for heterogeneous core architectures.
DDR5 and DDR4 as well as LPDDR5 and LPDDR4X RAM will be supported for all CPUs except for the 9W U-series models that only support LPDDR5 and LPDDR4X. The smaller package also means slightly more limited IO, such as support for fewer USB ports, only two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and four PCIe 4.0 lanes for SSDs. The 15W U-series CPUs have the same IO as the P-series 28W, with support for four Thunderbolt 4 ports and eight PCIe 4.0 lanes.
