At its inaugural InnovatiON event, which kicked off this morning, Intel revealed a number of additional details regarding its upcoming 12th Gen Core processors, codenamed Alder Lake. We’ve been covering leaks, rumors, and whatever else emerged regarding Alder Lake for ages. And after Intel’s recent Architecture Day a few weeks back, we were able to dive into the Alder Lake architecture and disclose many of the underlying technologies that enable its hybrid design, including its Performance and Efficiency CPU cores. Today, however, Intel disclosed some additional feature and platform details, along with the initial 12th Gen Core processor lineup – complete with pricing.
At a high-level, 12th Gen Core and Alder Lake are Intel’s latest multi-core processors and new hybrid architecture, designed to address a wide variety of use cases. Although today’s news will mostly relate to desktop systems, Alder Lake will eventually scale down to low-power mobile devices and up to high-end enthusiast desktops.
The processors leverage two new CPU core designs simultaneously, dubbed Efficiency (E-core) and Performance (P-core), and are built on Intel 7 process technology. In addition to the new hybrid core architecture, 12th Gen Core processors also feature support for the latest memory technologies and I/O, including PCI Express Gen 5, DDR5 (or DDR4) memory, and Wi-Fi 6E. Some of the processors will also feature Intel Xe-based graphics engines, have support for Deep Learning Boost, and Intel GNA 3.0 to accelerate AI and machine learning workloads.