Intel unveiled four new chip families at CES 2021. The 12th-generation desktop processor lineup, codenamed “Alder Lake”, was among them. Although the exact release date has not been issued yet, the best predictions place it between September and November. October seems to be the likeliest, as Intel has its InnovatiON event then.
For the first time, Intel’s hybrid design, which pairs big with small high-performance CPU cores, will be available on desktop x86 computers with the 12th-Gen Alder Lake processor. This is a significant strategic change for Intel as it seeks to reclaim the undisputed performance lead over AMD’s Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 CPUs. Alder Lake is projected to support DDR5 and PCIe 5.0, which will help it outpace Apple and AMD in terms of connectivity and beat the Ryzen series’ core counts in mobile devices. The new processors, however, are not without risk. The transition to a hybrid architecture necessitates operating system and software modifications to attain optimum speed and efficiency.
In any event, it is expected to be a successful attempt that will unite the company’s desktop and mobile lines, with the design perhaps making its way into the company’s high-end desktop (HEDT) range as well. At least for x86 processors, it is a major innovation that packs high-performance CPU cores with high-efficiency CPU cores into a single processor. Millions of Arm chips, dubbed “big.Little”, are modeled on this tried-and-true design idea. It’s only a little advancement, which Intel refers to as “Big-Bigger”, but these will be the first multicore processors for x86 desktop PCs. The ‘large’ high-performance cores in Alder Lake will be powered by Intel’s Golden Cove design, whereas the ‘small’ high-efficiency cores will be powered by Intel’s Gracemont architecture, resulting in a unique array of combinations. Also, the series will be the first chip lineup to use Intel’s 10nm SuperFin process.
With its Lakefield processors, Intel established a foothold in terms of software compatibility, leading up to hybrid x86 architectures. Due to an emphasis on lower-end mobile devices which need to be power-efficient, Lakefield wasn’t the best performer. However, Intel claims that Alder Lake will be tuned for excellent performance, which is essential for high-end laptops and desktop PCs. There are rumors that some models from the series will just have the large cores enabled, which should result in excellent gaming performance.
Meanwhile, Apple’s powerful M1 processors offer a gain in both power-saving and performance – thanks to their Arm-based architecture. Arm’s support for hybrid designs and the required software optimizations is a big part of that success. Intel’s attempts to provide the same close-knit degree of support, on the other hand, are in the works.
Intel is challenged by both its major rivals: Apple and AMD. Apple’s M1 chips have raised the bar for hybrid architectures, surpassing all other processors in their category and paving the way for even more powerful models in the future. In the meantime, AMD’s Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 processors have surpassed Intel’s older Skylake equivalents in every measure that matters.
In order to reclaim its supremacy, Intel would need to come with a unique design, much like the Conroe chips, which proved to be a great success when the Core architecture emerged with a 40% performance advantage that entrenched Intel’s dominance for years.
Meanwhile, Intel’s 11th-Gen Rocket Lake processors have arrived. Although the new chips outperform AMD in single-threaded tasks, they lag behind AMD in multi-core performance owing to Rocket Lake’s total of eight cores, whereas AMD offers 16-core versions for the consumer desktop. As Intel seeks to reclaim its performance advantage in the desktop PC and laptop industries, Alder Lake is critical.
Though Intel hasn’t revealed much about the new processor, numerous unauthorized facts have surfaced in recent months, giving us a good idea about the company’s long-term plans. Let’s jump right in.
Release Date
Intel hasn’t announced a precise release date for the new series, but it has stated that the processors will be certified for manufacturing in the second half of the year. This suggests the first batch of chips may arrive in late 2021 or early 2022.
Intel still has a lot more work to do before it can unleash this new chip, and even if everything goes according to plan, it won’t be available until the fourth quarter.
There are a lot of novel concepts in these new chips, which means there are a lot of things that may go wrong and cause the release to be delayed. At the very least, Intel has been astute in this regard, merely noting that the chip would be ready in the second half of the year. In the tech industry, six months is a lot of leeway. Even if it doesn’t go live until December 31, 2021, it will have met its goal.
There are two aspects of Alder Lake that stand out as the most likely ones to cause problems. First, there’s the entire thorny issue of getting the two distinct sorts of cores to operate together effectively. Second, Alder Lake will be Intel’s first desktop CPU to employ the company’s complex 10nm manufacturing process, which has now been dubbed the Intel 7 Production process.
Intel’s Rocket Lake CPUs for desktops and Tiger Lake-H for laptops have just been launched, so there’s no reason for Alder Lake to be rushed. With a whole new style of working, it’s more vital than ever to get the performance and efficiency right.
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Specifications
Alder Lake is still in its infancy, and there’s a lot known about its silicon composition. The operating frequency range and power consumption are too early to consider. What is known, however, is Alder Lake’s basic makeup and the kind of processors that will be included in Intel’s 12th-Generation CPU family.
The hybrid architecture of Alder Lake implies that each processor has a mix of Golden Cove conventional cores and Gracemont cores. Golden Cove cores support hyperthreading, multiplying the number of threads that the cores can tackle, whereas Gracemont cores, according to reports, do not. This explains why some processors have 8+8 cores and only 24 threads.
A leaked sample of mobile Alder Lake designs shows from one to eight Golden Cove cores operating alongside four or eight Gracemont Atom cores in this arrangement. Intel will have to cover some low-power alternatives on mobile, all the way down to 5W CPUs, which aren’t really exciting for gamers, but it does show that Alder Lake can scale. We won’t see such low core counts on the desktop, but we don’t know how far Intel will go to produce something like an entry-level Core i3.
Rumors have been circulating that an 8+8-core, 24-thread CPU will be released under Intel’s Core i9 brand. When you add in support for PCIe 5.0 and DDR5, Alder Lake appears to be a contender when it finally makes its debut.
Performance
So, what exactly are we talking about in terms of performance? It’s difficult to say until we get additional information. However, there are a few intriguing tidbits that might have some indications. We have no idea what the ultimate operating frequencies will be or how they will interact with the two cores. Is it true that Alder Lake has two main clocks, one for Golden Cove and the other for Gracemont? What is the relationship between these clocks and Turbo Boost?
According to rumors, the Golden Cove cores will offer a 20% IPC performance boost over the existing Rocket Lake processors. That’s not terrible, considering Rocket Lake already provides a 19 percent jump over the preceding Comet Lake generation. The Gracemont cores, however, are said to be comparable to Skylake. When combined, they have the potential to outperform AMD’s Zen 3 processors. Frequencies, on the other hand, are extremely important.
Switching to the Intel 7 Production process should improve performance significantly. A quicker or more efficient processor is usually correlated with a smaller process. However, a hybrid of the two would be ideal.
According to one unique perspective on the hybrid architecture, the high-efficiency Gracemont cores might allow the Golden Cove cores to run quicker. The notion is that Atom cores create less heat for the same workloads, making the thermal envelope for those large cores easier to manage. It remains to be seen how this will play out in gaming, but the potential is there. It’s possible that additional tweaking is required, but the idea of even quicker framerates is appealing.
Even with its new hybrid architecture, you have to expect that Intel will talk about a general performance boost over the existing Rocket Lake processors. While it’s true that gaming CPUs have reached a point of saturation, Alder Lake still has to outperform its predecessors in order for gamers to be interested in upgrading.
