Intel’s next-generation Alder Lake information leak “changes to memory”

Intel has announced the Rocket Lake S processor for the desktop, but the industry focus is already focused on Intel’s next – generation processors. It is codenamed Alder Lake, which will be released at the end of 2021. According to the latest leaked information released by Videocard, it is expected that there will be a big change in the existing Intel design.

Last year, Intel confirmed the presence of Alder Lake and said it would be available in 2021. However, Alder Lake was not initially identified. This is because it is based on a mixed core design like Lakefield. Launched in 2020, Lakefield is a 9-watt core processor with Intel hybrid technology, powered by Samsung Galaxy Book S. The performance shown in the Galaxy Book S review is weak.

However, according to the information revealed this time, Alder Lake may be a more interesting processor than you thought.

High performance

Videocard received an Alder Lake presentation, and according to this information, Alder Lake offers 20% performance on single-threaded applications and twice as much as multithreaded workload. Intel’s cutting-edge 10-nano process plays a role in this.

However, this alone is not enough to claim significant performance improvement. The video card compares Intel’s Alder Lake chip to Rocket Lake or 11th generation Tiger Lake. Intel may compare Alder Lake to the Lakefield chip. In this case, the baseline is reduced.

Intel claims that Alder Lake is designed with performance in mind. Raja Koduri, Intel’s Chief Architect, emphasized in August last year that “we are making great strides in hybrid architecture with a focus on performance.” Koduri said the Alder Lake chip combines several performance-focused Golden Cove cores with low-power Gracemont cores. If the videocard information is correct, there are eight cores in Alder Lake. The GPU is also expected to have XLP, as Intel stated last year.

Supports DDR5 and PCIe 5

If the videocard information is correct, Alder Lake will use DDR5 memory as the first Intel chip. More specifically, the Alder Lake S supports the DDR5-4800 and DDR4-3200.

First announced in 2017, DDR5 has twice the density and speed of DD4 memory currently in use. According to Micron’s White Paper, in fact, if you drive DDR4 and DDR5 memory together at 3,200MHz, DDR5 actually delivers 1.87 times the performance.

Existing DDR4 memory can be used as is, but in order to make full use of Alder Lake’s functionality, it is necessary to invest in new DDR5 memory. However, SK Hynix announced its first DDR5 memory last year, but it is not yet clear whether the price or supply will be available. Videocard supports Intel DDR5 only on high-end Z690 motherboards, and other motherboards are designed for DDR4.

According to Videocard, the Alder Lake will be shipped with the Intel 6000 series chipset. This chipset includes DDR5 memory support as well as support for x16 PCI5 and X4 PCI4. In fact, Intel and AMD have recently announced their support for PCI4, but this is for GPUs. PCI4 is still not used properly.

Therefore, PCI 5 is expected to be used for some time. The transfer rate of PCIe 5 is 32 GTps, which is twice that of PCIe 4, and the x16 link bandwidth is about 128 Gbps. PCI 5 was originally designed for applications such as machine learning and cloud computing, but there are also application standards for PCs. However, it is expected to only be used on next-generation GPUs and ultra-fast SSDs.

Additionally, it supports familiar input / output interfaces such as Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6E, and Upton H20 memory.

Not compatible with new socket and cooler

The last and biggest change is the LGA1700 socket. The new socket will be the foundation for the next generation of Intel, and information that the Alder Lake S as well as the 13th General Core Raptor Lake S will use the new socket. When the video card socket changed shape, the cooler did not fit into the existing LGA1200 socket. This is in contrast to the strength of AMD in socket compatibility.

All in all, investing in a new Alder Lake processor will require the purchase of a new processor, as well as a new motherboard, PCI5 capable memory and SSD. All these huge investments are to improve the performance promised by Intel, and when the actual product is released, we need to see if it is worth it. editor@itworld.co.kr