Details are emerging regarding the cores of the 11th generation CPU that Intel will introduce to the market in 2021.
Intel announced its first 11th-generation in early September, with models designed for use in more compact portable systems. However, these won't be the only processors expected on the market, as the Tiger Lake family will also expand with the Lake-H , characterized by a TDP of 45 watts.
Tiger Lake-H Characteristics
These are the next-generation processors installed in the most powerful and robust notebooks, including those designed for mobile workstations and gaming laptops. The website Notebookcheck has published preliminary information on these processors, which has not been officially confirmed by Intel, but can help to get a clear idea of what might happen in the coming months.
For the Tiger Lake-H , we will have versions with a TDP of 35 watts , limited to the quad-core architecture, and variants with a TDP of 45 watts featuring up to 8 cores . For the latter, the number of execution units implemented in the integrated GPU will be capped at 32. This choice will optimize power consumption and free up space for the processing cores. It's a wise design choice, as these CPUs will typically be paired with a dedicated GPU. The cores will be from the Willow Cove family, an evolution of the Sunny Cove architecture adopted by Intel for the 10th generation Core processors of the Ice Lake family.
Characteristics of Alder Lake
Another piece of information concerns Alder Lake processors. These will be a hybrid architecture, similar in design to those used in ARM smartphones, with smaller, more efficient cores. The lower-power cores will be from the Gracemont family, an evolution of Tremont, while the more powerful ones will be from the Golden Cove series, replacing the Willow Cove.
Alder Lake-P
There will be two versions of these solutions for Alder Lake-P with a 10nm hybrid architecture. We will have configurations with up to 6 low-power cores and 8 cores with higher processing power. PCIe 5.0 support will be introduced, with 8 PCIe 5.0 lanes and two 4x PCIe 4.0 lanes from the CPU, and 12 PCIe 3.0 lanes from the PCH. It will also support 4x Thunderbolt 4 , Wi-Fi 6E 802.11axR2, and will include a Maple Ridge controller.
Alder Lake-S
For Alder Lake-S, however, the number of cores will be 8 for both types. TDP is expected to reach a maximum of 125W, depending on the base configuration. Alder Lake-S will feature the Xe LP iGPU with up to 32EUs. It should also support up to 128GB of DDR4-3200 or 128GB of DDR5-4400 memory and PCIe 5.0, with 16 PCIe 5.0 lanes and 4x PCIe 4.0 lanes on the CPU alongside 16 PCIe 4.0 lanes and 12x PCIe 3.0 lanes on the PCH. Thunderbolt support was not mentioned, but it will come with support for Wi-Fi 6E 802.11axR2 and up to two Maple Ridge controllers. Security features are the same as those of the Alder Lake-P architecture.
