Intel announces “Alder Lake” 12th Gen Intel Core processors

Intel has announced the launch of its “Alder Lake” 12th Gen Core i9, Core i7, and Core i5 processors. Intel unveiled its 12th Gen Intel Core processor family with the launch of six new unlocked desktop processors. The new desktop processors offer new heights of multi-threaded performance for enthusiast gamers and professional creators.

The six desktop processors are the first based on Intel’s performance hybrid architecture featuring a combination of Performance-cores (P-cores), the highest performing CPU core Intel has built, and Efficient-cores (E-cores), designed for scalable multi-threaded workload performance.

The new performance hybrid architecture, the first built on Intel 7 process as detailed during the company’s Architecture Day 2021 is meant to deliver scalable performance from 9 to 125 watts.

“The performance hybrid architecture of 12th Gen Intel Core processors is an architectural shift made possible by close co-engineering of software and hardware that will deliver new levels of leadership performance for generations,” said Gregory Bryant, Intel executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group.

Intel Thread Director , it’s new dynamic scheduler, will enable the two new core microarchitectures to work seamlessly together by guiding the operating system (OS) to place the right thread on the right core at the right time.

“We’re at the beginning of a new era for the PC led by the introduction of Windows 11,” said Panos Panay, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer, Microsoft.“With Windows 11 and Intel’s new Thread Director technology, users will see their PC performance reach new heights on the new 12th Gen Intel Core family of processors,” added Panay.

“This begins with the arrival of our flagship Core i9-12900K – the world’s best gaming processor – and you will see even more incredible experiences as we ship the rest of the 12th Gen family and beyond,” Bryant added.

The 12th Gen desktop Core i9 CPUs announced so far feature 16 cores (8 P + 8 E), while the Core i7 models feature 12 cores (8 P + 4 E) and Core i5 models get 10 cores (6 P + 4 E). The lineup includes the 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900K. Touted as the “world’s best gaming processor,” it comes with a max turbo boost of up to 5.2 GHz and as many as 16 cores and 24 threads.

The processor is enhanced by Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E for up to 75 per cent less latency while gaming when multitasking, Intel said. It also features high-frequency P-cores paired with E-cores for offloading parallel tasks enabling up to 84 per cent more frames per second for simultaneous gaming, streaming, and recording, it added.

The launch marks the advent of DDR5 RAM and the PCIe 5.0 interconnect standard. The new processors will offer DDR5 memory for up to 4800MT/s. In a first, the processors will also offer PCIe 5.0 (up to 16 lanes), which offers up to 2X I/O throughput over PCIe 4.0, with up to an additional four lanes of PCIe 4.0 support.

The processors will be equipped with up to 30MB Intel Smart Cache (L3) and 14MB L2 cache for increased memory capacity with reduced latency. It will feature integrated high-speed wireless with Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E. It will feature Thunderbolt 4 universal cable connectivity for external device expansion.

The full 12th Gen Intel Core family will include 60 processors, set to power more than 500 designs from a broad set of partners. The new processors will also offer a host of overclocking tools for performance customisation, including the ability to overclock Efficient-cores and DDR5 memory.

“Enthusiasts and gamers can try these new platform overclocking features as part of the latest Intel Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) 7.5. Starting with the Core i9-12900K, XTU will also support one-click overclocking with Intel Speed Optimizer for unlocked 12th Gen processors,” Intel said.

It has also introduced the latest Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 3.0 with support for DDR5, offering additional profiles, including new rewritable custom profiles and flexible tuning for memory overclocking.

Alongside the 12th Gen Intel Core desktop processors, Intel is also launching the new Intel 600 Series Chipset. New features and advancements for the chipsets include PCIe Gen 4.0 lanes making for 28 total lanes off the chipset, integrated USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 and DMI Gen 4.0.

Availability
The 12th Gen Intel Core desktop processors are currently available for pre-order from participating OEMs, channel partners, and retailers. Broad availability will start November 4 with more than 140 customers in more than 30 countries expected to add the new processors to their lineups by the end of the year, Intel said.

Pricing in the US starts at $264 to $589 for the unlocked desktop processors. The company further said that it expects to ship “hundreds of thousands” of 12th Gen Intel Core desktop “K” processors by end of year and more than 2 million by the end of March 2022.

“To enable the expanded offerings for desktop, mobile and commercial segments expected in early 2022, Intel is also shipping 28 of the processor SKUs in the 12th Gen Intel Core processor family to OEM partners,” it added. The Hindu BusinessLine