Intel announced that it would launch its upcoming Rocket Lake and Alder Lake desktop CPUs this year, mostly in the second quarter. But out of the two, the blue team’s Alder Lake is on everyone’s mind as it comes with a new process node and a new chip and architecture design.
According to fresh sources, Intel’s Rocket Lake Desktop CPUs will be available on 15th March 2021. Compared to the 11th Gen family, the 12th Gen Alder Lake family will offer more cores, a new architecture, and a brand new process node. Since the release of Broadwell, it will be Intel’s first new process node in over 6 years.
Sources also report that Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs will feature the 10nm Enhanced SuperFin process node that delivers a 15% reduction in power consumption. Simultaneously, the Golden Cove architecture is expected to deliver IPC gains of at least 20% over Willow Cove.
It has already been predicted that Intel’s Alder Lake will only have a threat from AMD’s Zen 4. But as we know, those CPUs won’t see the light of day till 2022 due to TSMC’s 5nm process node’s insufficient capacity. But the rumored Warhol lineup of Zen 3+ based Ryzen CPUs that utilize TSMC’s 6nm process node might still give Intel a run for its money.
Coming back to intel, the Alder Lake CPUs will also feature a new design methodology. Intel plans to include a mix of CPU cores that are based on different IPs. It is rumored that Intel is going to utilize Golden Cove and Gracemont architectures.
Intel Golden Cove (Core) Architecture:
- Improve Single-Threaded Performance (IPC)
- Improve Artificial Intelligence (AI) Performance
- Improve Network/5G Performance
- Enhanced Security Features
Intel Gracemont (Atom) Architecture:
- Improve Single-Threaded Performance (IPC)
- Improve Frequency (Clock Speeds)
- Improve Vector Performance
The CPUs will be compatible with the LGA 1700 socket and the DIMMs seem to be DDR5. The platform features the latest and brand new I/O techs such as support for DDR5 memory, PCIe 5.0, and new Thunderbolt / WiFi capabilities.
Intel Desktop CPU Generations Comparison:
| Intel CPU Family | Processor Process | Processors Cores (Max) | TDPs | Platform Chipset | Platform | Memory Support | PCIe Support | Launch |
| Sandy Bridge (2nd Gen) | 32nm | 4/8 | 35-95W | 6-Series | LGA 1155 | DDR3 | PCIe Gen 2.0 | 2011 |
| Ivy Bridge (3rd Gen) | 22nm | 4/8 | 35-77W | 7-Series | LGA 1155 | DDR3 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2012 |
| Haswell (4th Gen) | 22nm | 4/8 | 35-84W | 8-Series | LGA 1150 | DDR3 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2013-2014 |
| Broadwell (5th Gen) | 14nm | 4/8 | 65-65W | 9-Series | LGA 1150 | DDR3 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2015 |
| Skylake (6th Gen) | 14nm | 4/8 | 35-91W | 100-Series | LGA 1151 | DDR4 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2015 |
| Kaby Lake (7th Gen) | 14nm | 4/8 | 35-91W | 200-Series | LGA 1151 | DDR4 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2017 |
| Coffee Lake (8th Gen) | 14nm | 6/12 | 35-95W | 300-Series | LGA 1151 | DDR4 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2017 |
| Coffee Lake (9th Gen) | 14nm | 8/16 | 35-95W | 300-Series | LGA 1151 | DDR4 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2018 |
| Comet Lake (10th Gen) | 14nm | 10/20 | 35-125W | 400-Series | LGA 1200 | DDR4 | PCIe Gen 3.0 | 2020 |
| Rocket Lake (11th Gen) | 14nm | 8/16 | TBA | 500-Series | LGA 1200 | DDR4 | PCIe Gen 4.0 | 2021 |
| Alder Lake (12th Gen) | 10nm | 16/24? | TBA | 600 Series? | LGA 1700 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0? | 2021 |
| Meteor Lake (13th Gen) | 7nm? | TBA | TBA | 700 Series? | LGA 1700 | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0? | 2022? |
| Lunar Lake (14th Gen) | TBA | TBA | TBA | 800 Series? | TBA | DDR5 | PCIe Gen 5.0? | 2023? |
