Intel is bringing 22 Alder Lake processors for desktop to CES 2022, from the Core i9-12900 which costs $489 to the Celeron G6900 which costs $42.
Alder Lake, or the 12th generation Intel Core, was first released in late October 2021. But at that time Intel only released six high-end processors which were expensive, as quoted by The Verge, Wednesday (5/1/2022).
However, this time the line they released is much more complete, although there are some of them that have similarities to the previously released Alder Lake, for example the Core i9-12900 whose unlocked variant was released in 2021 ago.
Then Intel also released the Alder Lake F series, which did not have an integrated GPU, as well as the T series which had only 35W TDP. Despite the many differences, this new line of Alder Lake processors has the same hybrid architecture as the previously released Alder Lake.
That is a combination of high-performance cores and power-saving cores to maximize performance but still be efficient. Same as the BIG.little scheme used by ARM.
Of course, in addition to the new processor, Intel also released a line of motherboard chips (mobo) to be paired with this new processor. Like the three consumer-class mobo chipsets in the 600 series, namely the H670, H660, and H610, accompanying the previously existing Z690 chipset line.
The features in the 600 series chipset are certainly more minimal than the Z690, but are quite sufficient for standard purposes. Features that are reduced include fewer PCI and USB lanes, but still have key features such as WiFi 6E and PCIe 4.0.
Intel also has three new CPU cooling fans that will be bundled with 65W class processors, namely the Intel Laminar RH1 (with RGB lights) packaged with the Core i9 series, Laminar RM1 for Core i7, Core i5, and Core i3, and Laminar RS1 for Pentium. and Celeron.
The Santa Clara-based chip company says the 12th generation Intel Core chips mark the company's shift to hybrid designs. Intel calls the change the "Biggest Architectural Shift in a Decade."
Instead of having multiple cores with the same clock speed and performance, Intel's new chips are equipped with a combination of P-cores (Performance cores) and E-cores (Efficient cores). The new architecture is similar to what Apple's M-series chips have - the big.LITTLE ARM architecture.
The number of P-cores and E-cores differs across models. For example, a 16-core i9-12900K has 8 P-cores and 8 E-cores, while a 10-core i5-12600K has 6 P-cores and 4 E-cores. One thing to note here is that only P-core supports multi-threading and not E-core.
Also, since the cores are now split into two versions, Intel determines base, boost, and max clock speeds for the P-core and E-Core.
