06/15/2023 at 3:01 p.m. Intel is reorganizing the complete nomenclature for the core processors from the “Meteor Lake” generation and is removing the “i” that has been established for years from their product designation. Instead, the manufacturer gives selected models the addition “Ultra”, which is intended to distinguish premium CPUs from mainstream CPUs. But that’s not all.
As Intel announced today, the company is completely changing the nomenclature of its core processors with the release of the “Meteor Lake” generation and is removing the “i” that has been established for years from their well-known product names. Instead, Intel will give selected processors the suffix “Ultra” in the future, which should better distinguish “premium CPUs” from “mainstream CPUs” and make them recognizable to users.
“Our client roadmap demonstrates how Intel is prioritizing innovation and technology leadership with products like Meteor Lake, focused on power efficiency and AI at scale.”
“To better align with our product strategies, we are introducing a branding structure that will help PC buyers better differentiate the best of our latest technology and our mainstream offerings.”
– Caitlin AndersonIntel vice president and general manager of Client Computing Group Sales
Intel Core 3, Core 5 and Core 7 without the familiar “i”
In the future, the mainstream CPUs will no longer be known as Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7, but will be listed as Core 3, Core 5 and Core 7 in the manufacturer’s portfolio. This is also reflected on the corresponding stickers, the so-called “batches” and “labels”, which are attached to the clients, desktop PCs and notebooks that are equipped with core processors. The entire transition begins with the release of the “Meteor Lake” generation.
Source: Intel Source: Intel
But that’s not all. After the new nomenclature does not include the well-known “i” in its product designation in the future, selected processors, so-called premium CPUs, are given a new, eye-catching addition.
Intel Core Ultra 5, Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 9
In the future, Intel will distinguish its premium processors from mainstream processors with the suffix “Ultra”. In the future, the Core Ultra 5, Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 9 will be positioned above the Core 3, Core 5 and Core 7.
Source: Intel Source: Intel
But that’s not all of the conversion work on the well-known naming scheme. Intel has now also decided on a clear cut for the model numbers and is heralding a new era for its entire CPU portfolio with the core processors of the next generation “Meteor Lake”.
Model numbers get a reset
While Intel hasn’t announced exactly which models will be introduced with the release of Meteor Lake, the company has confirmed that the numbering of model numbers will be reset and will start again with a shorter four-digit numbering. A Core i9-13900K would become a Core Ultra 9 1900K. The manufacturer will continue to stick to its prefixes “F”, “K”, “KF”, “KS” and “T” and thus make properties such as overclocking with a free multiplier visible, as Intel announced.
That’s what the core CPUs will be called
The complete product designations, which also have the suffix processor (“Processor”) in the official name, will look like this after the introduction of the new “Meteor Lake” generation core processors*:
Intel Core 3 processor ___X
Intel Core 5 processor ___X
Intel Core 7 processor ___X
Intel Core Ultra 5 processor ___X
Intel Core Ultra 7 processor ___X
Intel Core Ultra 9 processor ___X
*) all product designations can be supplemented with a prefix.
Minor changes to vPro and Evo
The labels for devices with Intel vPro and Intel Evo certification will also be revised slightly and will replace the stickers and batches labeled Core and Core Ultra for such systems. Notebooks that have a vPro or Evo certificate will in future come to customers with the following stickers.
Source: Intel Source: Intel
Intel also points out that integrated graphics solutions based on the Alchemist architecture (“Arc”) can be combined with processors from the Intel Core series as well as with Intel Core Ultra.
Meteor Lake is a game changer in design, manufacturing, and architecture, according to Intel. To reflect the significant benefits Meteor Lake is expected to bring to both Intel and customers, the company is introducing a new naming scheme, moving away from the veteran “Core i” branding.
The first Intel Meteor Lake processors are expected to hit the market in the second half of 2023. As Intel has previously confirmed, at least the laptop processors will be far more efficient compared to the Raptor Lake, and will get a significantly faster integrated graphics chip and a dedicated AI accelerator.
This is made possible not least by the production from several tiles – the processor is manufactured using the modern Intel 4 process, the iGPU by TSMC. At Computex, we already discovered a first notebook based on Meteor Lake, which is equipped with a chip with six performance and eight efficiency cores. Intel has now officially confirmed that Meteor Lake will have a new naming scheme. The “i” is omitted, so Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 become Intel Core 3, Core 5 and Core 7.
This is followed by a number consisting of four to five digits and a letter that, as before, indicates the processor class, for example a “K” for processors that can be overclocked. What’s interesting is that Intel will offer both “Intel Core #” processors and “Intel Core Ultra #” CPUs. When asked, Intel did not want to confirm what the “Ultra” designation stands for.
It would be conceivable that “Ultra” denotes processors with a faster graphics chip or with additional features. The name “Intel Processor”, which was announced last year, will continue to be used for inexpensive chips that were previously marketed as Pentium and Celeron. More details on Meteor Lake’s technology are likely to be revealed over the next few months before the first notebooks based on the new chips are shipped in the fall.
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Hannes Brecher – Senior Tech Writer – 12437 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2018
Since 2009 I have been writing for various publications in the technology sector until I joined the Notebookcheck news department in 2018. Since then I have combined my many years of experience in the field of notebooks and smartphones with my lifelong passion for technology to inform our readers about new developments on the market. My design background as art director of an advertising agency also allows me deep insights into the peculiarities of this industry.
First listings in databases, then an official confirmation from Intel’s Director of Corporate Communications, Bernard Fernandes. It is already known that Intel will change the naming of its processors. Now have another official confirmation or more details.
The reason for the new name is a major change in chip design – from architecture to packaging to new functions.
First of all, the “i” will disappear in the future. Core i7 becomes Core 7, Core i3, Core 3, etc. Intel dropped the additions “Pentium” and “Celeron” last fall and only calls them “Intel Processor”. The designation of the Core generation, which was otherwise used before the “Core”, has now also disappeared and can only be found in the model number.
The Core i5-___xx now becomes a Core 5 10xx – so you start again with the one and do not continue Meteor Lake as the 14th generation in the model name. It gets complicated at this point because of two points: First, because of the supposed Raptor Lake refresh and second, because Intel has not yet officially confirmed a desktop version of Meteor Lake. The new naming only starts with Meteor Lake. The suffixes such as “H”, “HX”, “U” etc. will continue to exist. With no confirmation of a desktop version of Meteor Lake yet, one can only speculate that there will also be “K”, “KS” and “T” model names.
For Meteor Lake there is now also the addition “Ultra”. So these processors come on the market as Core Ultra 5/7/9. It is not yet known how exactly Intel will carry out the model designations. What is also unknown is what makes an ultra processor such and what distinguishes it from the processors that do not have an “ultra” suffix. Intel did not want to comment on this at the current time.
In the future there will be the following model series:
Intel Core 3
Intel Core 5
Intel Core 7
Intel Core Ultra 5
Intel Core Ultra 7
Intel Core Ultra 9
We don’t understand why Intel is already talking about renaming and new model names without announcing the associated products at least in a certain detail. Until the introduction of the first Meteor Lake processors, the new names will not matter to the end customer and this includes the expected Raptor Lake refresh. The partners and Intel themselves must of course adapt and prepare their marketing material at an early stage, but in our opinion this does not have to be communicated to the outside world without substantial information.
If you already have gray hair, you will remember how Intel made a very interesting leap in performance in 2008 in processors. So much so that the brand changed the name of its processors to the Core range, with that distinctive i that we still have. A lot has happened from that, and it seems that, once again, Intel has to renew itself so as not to die. So, taking advantage of the move to chiplets and its new lithographic processes, the brand has decided that it is time to change. This will be the new names of its processors: Intel Core and Intel Core Ultra.
Nehalem architecture arrived with its 45nm and Intel left the competition behind. The leap in performance was vast, its processors introduced a large number of improvements to the architecture and laid the foundations for what we have today. Well, in less than a month this will be over to open up a new generation of processors to the world, and just like AMD did with Ryzen, Intel believes what it has to offer is revolutionary.
Intel wants to downplay the brand after 15 years
The largest in 15 years, on the way to two decades and new architectures and manufacturing processes. The key is to leave DUB behind and get into EUV and High-NA EUV thanks to ASML scanners. In addition, Intel will leave monolithic chips behind and belatedly to make the leap to the new generation of chiplets, thus competing with AMD on equal terms.
It is a generational change as we see, a change of concept and philosophy that will bring from RibbonFETgoing through PowerVia, until 3D Fovers.
It’s the new Intel, and as such, it requires new trade names. What is in front of us then?
Well, in principle, that of “the 13th generation” and its variants is over. That is to say, it will not be the 13th Generation Intel Core i9-13900KS, as we have now, but it will simply go to Intel Core and Intel Core Ultra, but let’s be more specific before drawing conclusions.
Two ranges, two currents, the minor: Intel Core 3, Core 5 and Core 7
The i is over as we said, the processors will no longer be i3 or i5 or i7, but will be Core 3, Core 5 and Core 7. It’s not a huge change, but it breaks with all these years of simplifying things. In addition, this range represents the most common processors, the range and current of the normal user who does not intend to opt for pure performance, but for the balance and ratio of performance/consumption/price.
For this reason, this Intel Core range dispenses with the name Intel Core 9, and therefore, there will only be those named as such.
Intel Core Ultra: high performance for premium chips
It will be that, the premium range of Intel, which also loses the i in the course and change. Here we will have three types of processors: Intel Core Ultra 5, Intel Core Ultra 7, and Intel Core Ultra 9. Everyone will get the best benefits within each market segment. Intel has called them “premium processors” as the slide shows.
As you have surely seen, there is no Intel Core 3 Ultra as such, just like there is no Intel Core 9 without more. It is the range segmentation that Intel has thought of, simplifying things more clearly, but there is more. And it is that in the details is the good.
On the first slide, and if you look at the top, the Intel Core will debut with Meteor Lake, that is, in just a few months within the range of laptops. On the other hand, with the Intel Core Ultra the brand specifies the 2H of 2023, but does not reference the architecture. What we can expect, it seems, since no full names have been shown, is something like Intel Core 3 1003Hin the case of Meteor Lake and laptops, or something like, Intel Core Ultra 9 14900Kin the case of Raptor Lake Refresh-S that will also arrive this year if all goes well.
Having said all this, what do you think of the new way of calling Intel processors? Are the blues right by simplifying everything? Will something similar to the Xeon arrive, which they confuse so much with their names in themselves? We keep reporting.
Intel has presented a simplification in its range of processors, which implies the elimination of a part of the name that was used until now.
Sometimes finding the best processor for our computer can be difficult, although it is much easier than it was a few decades ago. A common problem is usually in the nomenclature used by the manufacturers in the models available in Spain, which is usually confusing and complicated, with numbers and letters that seem to be put there for no purpose.
For example, What does the “i” of an Intel Core i7 mean? It is a detail that is either completely ignored or has no interest for the average user; in fact, the “i” of the “iPhone” or the “iPad” may come to mind for most, although it has nothing to do with it.
At Intel they have realized this and other problems related to their range of processors and for this reason, they have announced the biggest change in 15 years in the way they name their products. Is a simplification that seeks to make life easier for the buyer and make it clear what we are buying.
New Intel Cores
The biggest change is the end of the aforementioned “i”. For example, from now on, the Core i7 will be called just “Core 7”; For most people, that won’t be a problem because they already called it that, according to market research conducted by Intel itself. This is how the company discovered that users did not respect its brand, and that is the worst news that a marketer who has spent countless hours designing an original and attractive name for their product can receive.
So Intel has given up and will start calling its processors what everyone else calls them: Intel Core. Therefore, the new product range will start with the Core 3, will follow with Core 5 and continue with Core 7. But that is not the only change.
The new range of Intel Core Intel processors
Another problem that users had came when it came to differentiating between the most advanced processors and the most ‘normal’ (and cheap) ones; Since they all used the same nomenclature, it gave the impression that they were all the same and differed in power, something that is not true. This is how the new name “Ultra” was born, which will be used by the most cutting-edge Intel processors. Therefore, the new most advanced model will be the Intel CoreUltra 9, with the “Ultra” indicating that it is the newest and most advanced version of this range. And yes, that also means that there will be regular models and “Ultra” models with the same number: the range will be made up of the Core Ultra 5, Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 9.
New range of Intel Core Ultra Intel processors
The most controversial change is that Intel says goodbye to generations. For example, the current range is 13th, and the new one was going to be 14th, but that will no longer be the case. Intel will no longer differentiate between generations, in an attempt to get the user to choose the processor that best suits their needs and not just the latest (which does not necessarily have to be the best); however, it is a change that will greatly annoy those who precisely want to have the latest on their computer. For those advanced users, it is advisable to look at details such as the model number.
In short, choosing components for the computer, or choosing a new laptop, can be much easier for more people, but being well informed will continue to be important.
Intel has finally confirmed the rumors: the company’s 14th generation Meteor Lake processors will not only have improvements in their design and architecture, but also they will also have a change in their nameleaving aside the characteristic “i” that until now identified them.
In addition, Intel is also introducing a new category of processors Designed for more advanced customers, the “Ultra” series will be making changes to the Intel Evo Edition platform, and will introduce new tags such as Intel vPro Enterprise and Intel vPro Essentials.
For the company, Meteor Lake represents the new stage in the manufacture of processorssince it will be the first CPU manufactured in the new Intel 4 node process, with a design of chiplet which will include 3D technology from Foveros, providing energy efficiency. improved graphics performance, plus a dedicated AI engine, the Intel IA Boost.
Goodbye to the “Intel Core i”
In the name section, Intel says, it is about the update most significant of the brand in 15 years, with changes that will begin to be implemented in the brand’s products from the second half of 2023.
This means that there will only be a change in the letter “i” for the names of the processors, although the rest of the information of each CPU will be it will continue to show the same way.
From this date the Core i3/i5/i7/i9 will begin to be call like Core 3/5/7/9besides that the changes will also be reflected in the texts, logos and labels.
Intel changes the name of its processors: the iconic “i” leaves after 15 years, now they will be called…
In addition, the Ultra series will be called “Intel Core Ultra”, which will highlight the change of architecture and design in its construction.
The company also details that Intel Arc graphics they will be able to connect with the two models of processors: the Core and Core Ultra.
There comes a time in life when you need to make drastic changes in order to keep moving forward. Intel has been detecting it in its processors for a long time, since its monolithic design was not enough and it changed to a hybrid system. Now the company has decided to make another change, this smaller one, which involves the point and end to the name Intel Core.
We have to go back to December 2021, when Intel launches the first 12th Generation Core processors. These processors leave behind their structure of equal cores to introduce a new system. The new processors became hybrid, including efficiency and power cores.
This design is not new, ARM has been designing and producing processors of this type for smartphones for years. Although it is not new, it is the first time that it has been introduced in desktop processors. We must say that it is not as simple as “copying” the design, since ARM and Intel processors are based on very different instructions.
Name change in Intel processors
A few months ago this change was already glimpsed in a leak, which is now confirmed. Intel ends with the current name Core and introduces a new catalog for its processors. Specifically, this new nomenclature will arrive in the next 14th Generation Meteor Lake processors.
Saying nomenclature change It has already started, the first step being to eliminate the families Pentium and Celeron. Now, these processors go to be called Intel N and Core 3-N___, and are energy efficient solutions for Mini PCs, laptops and tablets.
The company has just announced the disappearance of the Intel Core range as we know it. Now this family of processors It is divided in two: Intel Core and Intel Core Ultra. In addition, the letter “i” is removed from the name, ceasing to be called, for example, Core i3.
Since the advent of Meteor Lake processors, The Core i3, i5, i7 and i9 will cease to exist. We will have on one hand Core 3, Core 5 and Core 7 for laptops and personal computer systems high efficiency. Then we will have the Core Ultra 5, Core Ultra 7 and Core Ultra 9, processors also for high-performance laptops and desktops with overclocking ability.
All these changes do not affect the design of the processors, they are only commercial changes. It seems evident that this small change is intended to compete with AMD Ryzen.
We will also see other small changes
A few years ago Intel launched the program Evo certification. This program establishes a series of requirements that all laptops that want to receive this label must meet. Intel processors, high-performance SSD drives, Thunderbolt connectivity or great autonomy, among other aspects.
Now, this denomination is changed, becoming denominated Intel Evo Edition platform. What is sought is to make it easier for users to identify laptops verified and certified by the company.
Labels are also introduced Intel vPro Enterprise and vPro Essential for professional business computers. This range of processors is characterized by having additional security elements to those present in their chips.
As we can see, they are a set of commercial changes that will not affect your products and their quality. Furthermore, a brand reorganization to make it easier for the user to purchase the solution that best suits their needs.
Intel has officially said goodbye to ‘Core i’ processors, and welcomed it to the ‘Core Ultra’ family.
Intel has formalized the change of nomenclature for its processors. The US company will stop offering chips under the names “core i” —i3, i5, i7 or i9—, to give way to the Intel Core Ultra. Those of Pat Gelsinger will begin using the new name from the launch of the Meteor Lake line, which will arrive in the second half of 2023.
According to the company, the change responds to the need to give Intel a new impetus as a brand. It is worth noting that the adoption of Core Ultra is not surprising, considering that one of Intel’s communication managers had anticipated it at the beginning of May.
In addition, Intel ensures that Core Ultra will help buyers to differentiate “the best of their latest releases” from the rest of their products. Thus, then, the processor catalog will be divided into three levels:
Intel: for input processors formerly offered under the Pentium and Celeron brands, discontinued some time ago.
intelcore: for your line of processors mainstream. For example: Intel Core 3, 5 or 7.
Intel Core Ultra: for your catalog of the most powerful and next generation processors. For example: Intel Core Ultra 5, 7 or 9.
Core Ultra: the new name for Intel processors
Intel wanted to make it clear that the name change for its next processors is not just a facelift. The company has commented that, with the premiere of Meteor Lake, its customer chips will be the first to adopt the 4-nanometer lithographic process. But not only that, but they will also be the first to have a dedicated engine for artificial intelligence. The latter will be known as Intel AI Boost.
“The new brand structure is designed for Intel’s future client technology roadmap. These changes make it easier for customers to identify the right solutions from Intel’s partner ecosystem for their computing needs. And they do it while emphasizing the prominence of the Intel Core brand, which has been a staple of the PC industry for nearly two decades. chipper from Santa Clara, Calif.
It remains to be seen how Intel manages to differentiate processors that will only be Core, from those that will be Core Ultra. Something that can lend itself to confusion very quickly. For now, Pat Gelsinger’s company has not provided details about the characteristics of the processors that will be offered under the new name. It has only been remarked that they will be the most advanced, and that the adoption of the nomenclature will take place from Meteor Lake.
The biggest drawback will surely occur when releases of Core 5 and 7 overlap, with Core Ultra 5 and 7. A mistake that will not happen with the old i3, which will be only Intel Core 3, nor with the old i9, which will be offered only such as Intel Core Ultra 9. Also note that Intel will no longer publicly identify its future releases as generational announcements. What does this mean? That it won’t refer to Meteor Lake as its 14th generation chip, and that will be the trend going forward.
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Intel is taking advantage of the arrival of the next generation of Meteor Lake processors to put the “i” of Core iX aside. The current nomenclature will be replaced by two new names: Intel Core and Intel Core Ultra.
After 15 years of good and loyal service, the “Core i” nomenclature will give way to two new names, the Intel Core and Intel Core Ultra. The founder believes that the switch to the Meteor Lake architecture, which introduces tiles with its Foveros process and the new Intel 4 (7 nm) engraving fineness, is the ideal time to change the nomenclature so that users can clearly distinguish the break with old architectures. At the same time, Intel will no longer communicate on the generations of its processors at the marketing level. So end the “Laptops equipped with the 13th generation of Intel processor” in advertisements or other brand communications.
No longer say Core i5, but Core 5
Concretely, the Core i3/5/7/9 will become the Core 3/5/7 and Core Ultra 5/7/9. However, Intel has not specified the characteristics necessary for a processor to be labeled “Core” rather than “Core Ultra”.
Possible example: Intel Core 5 processor ##xx. The ## would be a priori a generation number which could be 14 in the case of the Meteor Lake architecture. However, Intel does not rule out starting from 1 in order to truly mark the occasion. The xx would be basic numbers like the 900 of the Core i9-13900K.
Another point that requires clarification: the suffixes -K or -F of desktop processors, or -U, -P, -H and -HX of mobile versions are not mentioned. We therefore do not know if they will be maintained and, contacted, the founder did not wish to say more.
Last modification which only concerns laptops, the Intel Evo certification becomes Intel Evo Edition. Remember that the Intel Evo models meet the founder’s specifications, ensuring, among other things, performance and autonomy.
The introduction of this new nomenclature will occur with the arrival of 14th generation Intel Core processors, codenamed Meteor Lake, which should take place before 2024.
Abandonment of the “i” and the generational suffix, creation of the Ultra range, more general public version of its vPro range, etc. In addition to its business and its production technologies, Intel is also moving in its processor nomenclatures for the upcoming arrival of its 14th generation of “Core”.
The world giant of PC processors Intel has decided to clean up the future nomenclature of its consumer computer processors. Heckled on the stock markets, the American giant looks back on 15 years of “Core” processor history and has worked not only a little on its graphics, but also on the naming and segmentation of its chips.
This “rebranding” work that leaked a few weeks ago does not seem to be a classic fad of marketers in need of projects. Faced with many challenges and delays, in a much more competitive market than just 5 years ago, Intel is rolling up its sleeves and racking its brains to get back on top. And since Albert Camus said that ” to misname things is to add to the misfortune of the world », it is very legitimate that the company tries, once again, to name its products well.
The reason for the change: Meteor Lake and the need for a revival
Officially, the reason for this “rebranding” is the arrival by the end of the year of the 14ᵉ generation of Core processors, whose code name is “Meteor Lake”. A generation of chips that is innovative in many respects: it will introduce the first disaggregated architecture (disaggregated in English, AMD speaks of chiplets), which breaks with Intel’s historical monolithic approach. To improve the yields and the cost of its chips, Intel will (finally!) use its technologies for stacking and “gluing” chips (Foveros in particular) to be more competitive. But Meteor Lake is also the first use by Intel of its “Intel 4” burning technology for one of the “pieces” of its chip. It’s also an all-new GPU, whose architecture will be the basis of its next-generation “Battlemage”. And it’s also the introduction of its first dedicated AI chip – which we’ve already told you about.
In addition to this technological consideration which makes our interlocutors at Intel say that Meteor Lake will be a “major” generation, there is also the need for the company to shake up all its branches to put itself in combat order. With market shares that have fallen in several areas (data centers, mobile PC processors in particular) and the drop in its stock market quotation, “chipzilla” is shaken up. And his boss, who has stirred up both the factories (business transformation and manufacturing for others) and r&d (challenging several products) must undoubtedly also urge the marketing and communication teams to get moving.
Two segments, exit the “i”, generation number suffix
The most visible novelty is the disappearance of the “i” in front of the chip class numbers. No more “Core i3” or “Core i9”, but Core 3, Core 5, Core 7 and Core 9. In addition to the “i”, Intel announces the segmentation of the “Core” into two families: to the aforementioned “classics”, a class of “Ultra” chips is added which will represent high-power chips.
While the generation and processor typology codes will no longer be highlighted as much, geeks and informed consumers can however be informed by the second part of the processor name. Thus, a Core 9 processor from the ultra range of 15e generation will be presented as a Core Ultra 9 15xx, where xx will be its code name in the range.
According to the slides transmitted by Intel, “ Intel Arc graphics chips can be paired with both Core and Core Ultra processors “. It remains to be seen how Intel will operate its graphics marketing segmentation between these two families…
EVO and vPro remain and evolve (a little)
On the platform side, two changes are coming: one that affects the name EVO and the other, the lesser known vPRO. For EVO, the change is subtle and you won’t see any written mention of it. This is a strengthening of the validation platform. From “Project Athena”, EVO is a bit like the “Centrino” of the 2020s for Intel, a statement that guarantees the consumer a minimum level of equipment, performance, endurance, etc.
The EVO mention evolves in the laboratories with each generation. What this means for us is that a 14th generation machine cannot be a simple change of processor on a 13 generation chassis.e generation validated in the past: any mention of EVO will now imply compliance with updated specifications for each new generation of chip.
Less known by the general public, we must also mention vPRO. If you have a laptop provided by your (rather large) company, you have probably spotted this logo on your machine. A sticker that means that your entire platform has, both from a hardware and software point of view, additional protections (security, authentication) and tools (fleet management, maintenance) that facilitate the work of IT departments.
vPRO is also an essential brand in certain groups – which explains why Intel still has a monopoly in certain companies, AMD not having as advanced a level of certification and security for its “client” chips as Intel. With the rise of remote working and employee chosen and purchased devices, Intel is once again splitting its lineup into vPro Enterprise (enterprise) and vPro Essentials. Both certifications will respect the same common core, but the enterprise version will offer more “corp” functions such as remote network control, remote hard disk erasure, etc.
Intel Processor remains (and it’s a shame!)
If Intel does not talk about it in its original press release, we have heard of a change that (unfortunately) did not take place: the eradication of the “Intel Processor” range. After dropping its “Pentium” and “Atom” brands, Intel has rebadged its entry-level “Intel Processor”. A stupid name because, in English, a Core 9 Ultra is indeed a processor manufactured by Intel. So he too is an “Intel processor” (with a lowercase p) which is not part of the “Intel Processor” range (with a capital P, therefore).
If it remains to be seen how the new nomenclature will be received, not only in advertising communication, but also in intergenerational comparison, one thing is certain: at least one task remains for Intel’s marketing departments. Kill those pesky Intel Processors!
This is the big upheaval at Intel, which will review the names of all its processors. Gone is the “i” of Core i7, with the Meteor Lake generation the chip manufacturer will decline its processors into three ranges “Intel”, “Core” and “Core Ultra” to differentiate them.
It’s spring cleaning at Intel, which is facing competition from Apple and its M2 Ultra processor, an overpowered chip that will equip the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro. Indeed, the rumor that Intel was abandoning the Core i3, i5, i7 and i9 and that its new Meteor Lake processors would be called Core Ultra was well founded. In addition, the chipmaker will no longer specify the name of its next series of processors by “14th generation”.
The manufacturer is completely revamping the names of its processors and now plans to sell three families of chips: Intel, Intel Core and Intel Core Ultra. Thus, a Core i7 and its multi-digit versions can be called in three ways: Intel 7 for entry-level, Core 7 for mid-range or Ultra 7 for large computing needs. The company is thus taking advantage of this change to segment its flagships in relation to low-budget chips.
Why is Intel changing the name of its Intel Core processors?
In the pages of The Verge, Intel’s branding experts explain that the word “Intel” was getting lost, and the Meteor Lake chips coming in the second half of 2023 offered an opportunity to change things. “When we looked at how the tech press, our retailers, OEMs and partners were talking about it, it was interesting to see how narrowed down we were to a letter and a number.“, explains Christopher Hirsch, director of brand strategy at Intel.
The company says its research found it was “Core,” not “i5” or “i7,” that triggered associations with Intel. Christopher Hirsch also wonders about the connotation of the “i”, which can above all remind consumers of its competitor Apple with the iPhone and iPod, products that marked their era. Yet bad habits (or bad luck) seem to continue against the Apple brand: Apple already has products called Ultra like its processors or the Apple Watch Series 8.
Already evoked by a rumor, the change of name of the range of Intel processors is now a reality.
Source: Intel
Naming a product as well as possible is a fairly precise science of marketing. It might seem ridiculous to make a name change a news story, but when it’s the first change in 13 years, it takes on much more significance.
After a rumor, Intel formalizes the change of nomenclature for its range of processors.
Goodbye Intel Core i
First change announced by Intel: the disappearance of the “Iin the name of the processors.
The Intel Core i3, i5, i7 and i9 very simply become Intel Core 3, 5, 7 and 9. This change allows Intel to better align the name of its processors with its Intel Arc 3, 5 and 7 graphics chips.
You should also discover a sticker “Intel Evo Editionon upcoming high-end ultraportables.
It simply indicates compliance of the machine with the Intel Evo program.
These changes will take effect from the launch of Meteor Lake, the next generation of Intel processors which promises profound changes in the very architecture of the chip.
Meteor Lake represents an inflection point in Intel’s processor roadmap. It will be the first processor made with the new Intel 4 processor and the first client processor to be designed using Foveros advanced 3D packaging technology. It will offer improved power efficiency and graphics performance. This processor is also the first Intel processor to feature a dedicated artificial intelligence engine: Intel AI Boost.
In addition, Intel will no longer communicate so frontally on the generation of processors. We will always find this information in the name of the product (Intel Core 7 14900k for example for a 14th generation processor).
Intel Ultra processors are coming
Meteor Lake should also be an opportunity for Intel to present its first Ultra processors. The brand does not go into detail about this new range of processors, but we imagine that it is a question of replacing the term Extreme which was sometimes used by the brand for its best chips. We will be entitled to Intel Core Ultra 5, Intel Core Ultra 7 and Intel Core Ultra 9.
For Intel, Intel Core Ultra processors will be the most advanced processors. We will have to wait for the presentation of Meteor Lake expected before the end of 2023 to get a more precise idea of the new Intel Core Ultra processors.
Intel has released its new chip focused on quantum research, Tunnel Falls, its first silicon spin qubit device, which it has made available to the academic community to explore this technology and accelerate research development.
A qubit (or quantum bit) is the basic unit of information in quantum computing. While a bit can only represent a single binary value – that is, 0 or 1 – the qubit can represent a 0, a 1 or any ratio of 0 and 1 in the superposition of both states.
In this way, it allows quantum algorithms to process information in a much shorter time than the time required by a classical system. For this reason, quantum computing is being used to carry out discoveries in different fields such as health care, energy or environmental systems.
Within this framework, Intel has launched Tunnel Falls which, as described in a statement, is the company’s first silicon spin qubit device. Specifically, it is a 12-qubit silicon chip manufactured on 300-millimeter wafers at the D1 manufacturing plant.
This device takes advantage of Intel’s most advanced industrial transistor manufacturing capabilities, with technologies such as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography and gate and contact processing techniques.
As Intel explains, in the case of silicon spin qubits, the information – the 0s and 1s – is encoded in the spin (up or down) of a single electron. This translates to each qubit device being “essentially a single-electron transistor.” As a result, Intel can manufacture it using a flow similar to that used in a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) logic processing line.
Furthermore, another of the advantages of silicon spin qubits is that they outperform other qubit technologies for “the synergy it offers with cutting-edge transistors.” This is because they are about the size of a transistor and are therefore “up to a million times smaller” than other types of qubits, which measure around 50 square nanometers. The size of the silicon spin qubits thus allows for “more efficient” scaling, according to Intel.
Following this line, Intel also benefits from being able to use CMOS manufacturing lines to produce this chip, since it allows it to use “innovative” process control techniques to “improve performance and performance.”
In fact, in the case of 12-qubit Tunnel Falls, a 95 percent throughput rate has been achieved across the wafer, as well as voltage uniformity resembling that of CMOS logic processes. Also, each wafer provides 24,000 quantum dot devices.
For all these reasons, as stated by the director of Quantum Hardware at Intel, Jim Clarke, the launch of the new chip is “the next step in Intel’s strategy to build a complete commercial quantum computing system.”
COLLABORATION WITH THE QUANTUM RESEARCH COMMUNITY
Intel has made Tunnel Falls available to the quantum research community in order to promote the development of this technology, facilitating its investigation. To do this, the company is collaborating with the University of Maryland’s Laboratory of Physical Sciences (LPS) and College Park’s Qubit Collaboratory (LQC).
As detailed by the technology, academic institutions do not have large-volume manufacturing equipment like Intel. In this sense, by facilitating Tunnel Falls, researchers can start working with this chip in their quantum computing projects, instead of having to make their own.
As a consequence, this collaboration makes possible a broader range of experiments, learning more about the fundamentals of qubits and quantum dots, and developing new techniques for working with multi-qubit devices, according to Intel.
Specifically, Intel is collaborating with LQC on the Qubits for Computing Foundry (QCF) program through the US Army Office of Research. This cooperation will help democratize silicon spin qubits by allowing researchers to gain experience working with this technology.
The first quantum labs to participate in the program are LPS, Sandia National Laboratories, the University of Rochester, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. But, in addition, LQC continues to work with Intel to bring Tunnel Falls to other universities and research laboratories. Likewise, the information obtained in these investigations and experiments will be shared with the community so that the progress is even greater.
For his part, LPS Head of Quantum Information Science, Charles Tahan, has detailed that the LPS Qubit Collaboratory, together with the Army Research Office, intends to address the “difficult challenges facing qubit development.” ”, as well as “developing the next generation of scientists who will create the qubits of tomorrow”.
In the same way, Sandia National Laboratories has valued the possibility of using the Tunnel Falls chip. “The device is a flexible platform that allows Sandia quantum researchers to directly compare different qubit encodings and develop new modes of operation of qubits, which was not possible before,” said Dwight Luhman, Ph.D. and technical team member.
It is clear that Cyberpunk 2077 is a video game that demands a lot from our computers, but not only from our graphics cards. CD Projekt’s RPG also puts our CPU cores on the ropes. If you are an Intel user, yes, the Polish team wants to make things easier for you, and they do so through the new title patch, which improves the performance of the game.Generations 12, 13 and 14 through an essential change: specific options for hybrid processors.
Cyberpunk 2077 adds options for hybrid CPUs
Unlike what happens with AMD, the new generations of Intel use two types of cores. Calleds E-Cores (for Efficient) and P-Cores (for Performance), these cores have different power, and until now the game didn’t let you choose what to prioritize. Patch 2.11 adds hybrid CPU utilization options, circumventing this issue.
You won’t have to think too hard if you want to use this option, since CDPR only gives you two configurations, the usual automatic one, which lets the operating system decide which cores to use) or the prioritize P-Cores for better performance, prioritizing the cores that can give you the most performance.
An option with potential, but many problems
Even so, There are problems, and Tom’s Hardware has decided to test this configuration with disastrous results. According to the Anglo-Saxon media, if it works correctly it would be a step forward to take better advantage of hybrid processors, but currently it creates lots of micro hangs that ruin the gaming experience. At the moment, you shouldn’t use it, but an upcoming patch may allow you to get the most performance possible out of your CPU.
Why the Intel Core i5 is actually a Core i9, or what is processor binning
We’ve gotten used to not having one or two desktop processors in every generation, but sometimes a dozen. They differ in number of cores, frequencies, cache sizes, integrated graphics and many other things, which makes us think that manufacturers have to create a different production line for each CPU, which is expensive and quite difficult.
In fact, as surprising as it may seem, all modern Intel or AMD CPUs are made with the same chips. Yes, physically an 8-core Core i9 and a 6-core Core i5 are as close as possible. Even apple does the same. But how and why do manufacturers do it? Let’s get to the bottom of the matter.
It all starts with silicon wafers
The path of most processors we are used to starts with a standard 300mm silicon wafer called a wafer. The wafer is made of high-purity silicon, so in addition to wearing masks, all employees wear special suits to keep contamination levels as low as possible.
Later, lasers and masks are used to etch layers of metallization, insulation, and the semiconductors themselves onto these wafers, creating the beautiful silicon wafers we sometimes see in presentations:
The cost of one of these wafers is simply fabulous, often running into several hundred thousand dollars, and the production process can take months. Hundreds of processors can be engraved on such a wafer, which are then cut up and sold. However, in reality, things are more complicated.
At least part of the wafer (5-15%) goes directly to scrap: as we remember, the CPU crystals are rectangular or square, but the wafer is round. You cannot make it square: the manufacturing process consists of creating cylinders with pyramids at the ends:
So it turns out that a part of the wafer is guaranteed not to contain the CPU and goes directly to recycling.
Okay, but surely the rest of the wafer can be cut into individual CPU crystals, placed on substrates, and sold. In practice, again, no.
Our world is not perfect.
No matter how hard engineers try, it is impossible to make a perfect wafer and “burn” processors on it perfectly. There will always be defects: somewhere from silicon inhomogeneities, somewhere from dust on the wafer surface during laser operation.
So the wafers are tested for defects after production using various methods, and finally some part of the wafer is marked for further analysis: binning. Yes, it can literally be translated as “binning”, and in fact it is not far from the truth.
Let’s go back to Rocket Lake itself, for example. The highest representative of this line, the Core i9-11900K, has 8 cores, three cache levels, various controllers and integrated graphics:
The 8 rectangles in the center are the cores, the cache is between them, the dark area on the left is the integrated graphics.
These are exactly the type of crystals that should be obtained ideally. But, what to do if a failure detects that a core of some processor crystal is not working? The easiest option is to discard that defect after cutting the wafer into separate crystals with a laser cutter.
But, as we remember, such wafers are very expensive and take a long time to produce, so engineers had a simple idea a few decades ago: let’s disable bad blocks and create cheaper processors from such crystals.
Bad integrated graphics? Let’s disable it and mark said processor with index F – it will still work, but you will need a discrete graphics card for image output. One or two cores? Let’s disable them along with the cache and call this Frankenstein a Core i5 instead of a Core i7 or a Core i9.
Thus, it turns out that “garbage digging” gives results: only crystals that are unlucky are discarded: for example, they have a bad L3 cache common to all cores or a ring bus. The rest is trimmed and sold on a “waste for profit” basis.
Even apple is not deprived of this: for example, the company sells its M1 SoC in two versions, with 7 and 8 GPU cores. In fact, from a physical point of view, the chips of both versions are, of course, the same, the company simply does not want to throw away the almost working SoC. Considering that not everyone needs high graphics performance, this decision makes sense:
You can also sell half the beer
It seems that everything is in place now: the simpler CPU lines are the rejections of the older ones. But what about the Core i7 and Core i9 of the latest generation of Intel CPUs, for example? The Core i7-11700K only differs from the Core i9-11900K in clock rates, exactly the same as the Core i5-11500 and Core i5-11600K:
How does this work? It’s simple: there is such a thing as purity of silicon: the closer a wafer-cut crystal is to its center, the purer the silicon it contains. This affects the so-called leakage currents: the lower they are, the cooler the processor will be, but also the worse it will be overclocked.
This is why companies select crystals with high leakage currents to build high-frequency CPUs: yes, they will get hotter, but they will also support higher frequencies. And for simple solutions, especially without overclocking, crystals with low leakage currents can be taken, which at the same time will reduce the power consumption of such CPUs.
How big is the actual difference in achievable frequencies between these CPUs? With well-established technological processes such as 14 or 7 nanometers, no: thus, while the Core i9-11900K reaches an average of 5.1GHz, the Core i7-11700K stops at around 4.8-4.9GHz. A 200MHz difference at these frequencies gives less than 5% real performance.
A marriage of will.
No, it’s not what you’re thinking. It’s no secret that low-end processors like the Core i3 or Core i5 outsell the older Core i7, let alone the Core i9. But the first ones are defective, you will say. Is it possible that more than half of them are defective when the tokens are made?
Of course not. Producers don’t usually disclose exact figures, but in fact the proportion of defective wafers barely exceeds 10-15%. So where is the bоMost of the basic lines of the CPU?
Of the complete Core i7 or Core i9. Yes, manufacturers’ software or hardware disable cores or integrated graphics that are running at full capacity, labeling those processors as Core i3 and Core i5. But what is the benefit then? After all, the representatives of higher ranges cost more than the basic ones, that is, the companies deprive themselves of benefits?
Due to downsizing bugs this happens: The 4 core Ryzen 3 1200 has all 8 cores.
Of course not. That’s where the economy comes into play. Let’s say a wafer chip costs Intel $50. You can sell it as a Core i9 for $400, bringing it down to a Core i5 for just $200.
But at the same time the Core i5 sells, say, 5 times better than the Core i9. That means the company will only earn $350 after selling a top line rep. Therefore, it is more profitable to sell 5 representatives of the middle line and earn only 150 dollars for each of them, but your total profit is already 750 dollars.
unlock magic
And that may have already led some users to the thought: since AMD and Intel often lock down absolutely working kernels, why not try unlocking them?
And sometimes this is successful. For example, more than ten years ago AMD produced the Athlon with two cores and the Phenom with three and four cores. You can often try to unlock Athlon to Phenom directly in the BIOS, ie get a processor with twice as many cores for the same price. Of course, this was not always possible, but there are also many lucky people on the Internet.
The Athlon is becoming… Athlon becomes… a full-fledged Phenomenon!
Or, for example, not so long ago, about 5 years ago, due to a bug from Intel on the Z170 chipset boards, it was possible to overclock 6th generation CPUs with a locked multiplier. As a result, the basic Core i5-6400 at only around 3GHz could be overclocked to 4GHz and sometimes even higher. Of course, the initially overclockable Core i5-6600K carried higher frequencies – the thing, as we’ve already found out, is leakage currents – but still a free performance bonus of up to 30% never hurts.
In anticipation of questions: no, you cannot “unlock” AMD Ryzen and the latest generations of Intel Core. Companies have gotten smarter, and now crystals initially create special bridges, which are cut off during “forced” rejection. So there is no way to enable disabled kernels programmatically.
In summary.
What is the end result? Companies will never stop making a profit, and they will literally squeeze the juice out of silicon, sometimes selling chips with almost half of their processing units turned off. On the other hand, we are better: the more active the binning is, the less money companies will lose due to rejections and the lower the cost of the tokens will be for us. So if you buy a Core i5 in the future, just know that it was a Core i9 at heart, it’s just bad luck.
The first high-aperture extreme ultraviolet (EUV) photolithography equipment on the planet is on its way to the Intel factory in Hillsboro (USA). It is possible that by the time SamaGame readers are reading these lines it has already reached its destination. This very complex machine of about 300 million dollars It has been designed and manufactured by the Dutch company ASML, although Intel engineers have also participated in this process.
This first equipment will be used to start the testing phase, and presumably during 2024 TSMC, Intel and Samsung will receive more units of this machine, whose commercial name is Twinscan EXE:5000 or EXE:5200. In any case, ASML has confirmed that large-scale production with this photolithography equipment will begin in 2025. A priori, these seem like reasonable deadlines and are aligned with the itineraries managed by Intel, TSMC and Samsung.
In theory, high-aperture UVE lithography equipment will allow semiconductor manufacturers to produce integrated circuits beyond the 3 nm barrier. To make this possible ASML has implemented a very advanced optical architecture that It has an aperture of 0.55 compared to the value of 0.33 that the first generation UVE lithography equipment has. This refinement of optics allows higher resolution patterns to be transferred to the wafer, making it possible to manufacture chips using more advanced integration technologies than those currently used in 3nm nodes.
In reality, it is ASML who has the upper hand.
Without high-aperture UVE photolithography equipment there will be no 2nm integrated circuits. And much less than 1 nm. These chips already appear on the itineraries of the three companies I have talked about in this article, so we can be sure that their medium-term business requires their nodes to be well-oiled and capable of performing correctly to deliver the performance per wafer necessary to ensure the cost-effectiveness of these integration technologies. At this juncture it is evident that the role of ASML lithography machines is unquestionably leading.
According to ASML, its Twinscan EXE:5200 lithography equipment is capable of producing more than 200 wafers per hour.
As I mentioned in the first lines of this article, a high-aperture UVE photolithography equipment has an approximate price of 300 million dollars, while a first-generation EUV machine moves in the orbit of 150 million dollars. The difference in cost between one and the other is overwhelming. The reasonable conclusion we can reach once we have noticed this price difference is that integrated circuit manufacturers are going to be forced to optimize performance per wafer of its next nodes to keep the cost of the chips within an acceptable range. And they are also going to have to maximize their monthly wafer production.
According to ASML, its Twinscan EXE:5200 lithography equipment is capable of producing more than 200 wafers per hour. Furthermore, the improvements introduced by this company’s engineers in the optical and mechanical systems of this machine reduce the complexity of the processes involved in the manufacturing of integrated circuits, an asset that will benefit chip producers.
However, former ASML analyst Jeff Koch says the need to combine two types of mask exposure on the same wafer will significantly increase the cost of chip manufacturing. TSMC, Intel and Samsung weigh in on the many advantages that the new devices in the Twinscan EXE family put in their hands. But we must not overlook that the other tray resides a very notable increase in costs. Be that as it may, if these manufacturers want to produce chips of 2 nm, 1 nm and beyond, they will necessarily have to check out and get the new ASML machines.
When we talk about Intel processors, they all have a nomenclature that gives us an understanding of their generation and their range. However, and especially when we talk about laptop processors, some letters are also added at the end, as a suffix. In this article we are going to explain what those letters mean in Intel processors so that you know how to identify them just by looking at their model.
Index
The nomenclature of Intel processors
processor groups
Core range
Meaning of the letters of the processors
Deciphering the name of the CPUs
Why do I need to know all this?
Next, we are going to explain what each of the letters that Intel uses when naming the enormous number of processors that are launched on the market with each new generation means. As you will see at the end, the name alone tells you a lot of information about the processor, or rather what you can expect from it due to its range.
The nomenclature of Intel processors
Currently in the market we can find up to six groups of different Intel processors. Then, within some of them, such as the Intel Core, there are different ranges. We are going to try to explain everything to you, the main ranges within the main commercial CPUs and we are even going to explain what each part of the name of a processor means.
processor groups
Intel classifies its processors into different types, depending on their potential use. The main ones are:
Pentium Silver: It is the most basic range of Intel processors designed for simple tasks. They are a processor without HyperThreading and with a really low consumption
Pentium Gold: According to the company, they are ideal for everyday use, such as browsing or office automation. Some of these processors may be interesting for entry-level gaming equipment.
Celeron: Very basic range processor that usually has few cores (at most four) and that may lack, among other things, support for Boost frequencies
Core: It is the range of desktop processors that is divided into four groups, which we will see later. They are the most versatile, since they are designed for gaming, office automation, etc.
Core-X: Range of advanced processors from Intel that are a kind of hybrid between Core and Xeon (which we will see below). More focused on photo and video editing, streaming, programming, etc.
Xeon: Processors for servers, where very demanding and intensive workloads are carried out.
Core range
As we have mentioned, within Core processors we have four product divisions. What this nomenclature does is divide the processors according to the number of cores. These are the “optimal” ranges and uses according to the company:
Core i3: They are the simplest within this range and are designed more for light tasks. The most modern ones can be quite interesting to build a cheap gaming PC
Core i5: They are usually the most demanded for their great versatility, being highly chosen by video game fans
Core i7: They are more focused on gaming and are a great option for those who want to play at 4K resolutions, for example.
Core i9: They are powerful processors that can be perfectly used for streaming or content editing, being the ones with the most cores
Meaning of the letters of the processors
The nomenclature that Intel uses for its processors has another important characteristic that we must take into account: the suffix. Although Intel assigns numbers to its processors to align them in the company’s product catalog, not all products allow for easy differentiation. A quad-core processor will obviously have an advantage over a dual-core model, but what about processors made for laptops or embedded systems? That’s where the suffix system comes in.
The suffix on Intel processors is consistent across all generations of processors, although not all generations have used them. In the following list you will find all the letters that you can find in Intel processors, along with their meaning.
No identifier: processors (usually) intended for desktops with slightly cut frequencies, which means adjusted consumption
K: Indicates that this processor has the multiplier unlocked, and is therefore suitable for overclocking
KS: these are K-type processors that have a higher Boost frequency, but also a higher consumption
KF: These processors are overclockable, but lack integrated graphics
T: they are desktop processors with very low consumption, usually with very low frequencies and, therefore, very low consumption
X: Found on HEDT higher performance processors
XE: intended for HEDT maximum performance processors, which also indicates that they are “Extreme Edition”
XS – special HEDT processors with 8 cores and whose frequency in at least one of the cores exceeds 5.0 GHz (deprecated)
U: indicates that it is a processor of low power and consumption, normally used in laptops
H: indicates that it is a processor for gaming laptops
HK: they are the same as the “H” type processors, but in this case with overclocking capacity
HQ: high-performance processors that are limited to four cores (very rare these days)
HF: These laptop processors have high-end specs, but no iGPU
G: Used in processors that include third-party graphics. An example is the Intel Core i7-8809G for the Intel NUC system NUC8i7HVK, which includes AMD Radeon RX Vega graphics. Currently the company no longer offers these processors and this denomination is in disuse.
G1-G7: indicates the characteristics of the graphics integrated in the processor, specifically, the number of graphics cores and, therefore, its power. Found in very certain processors
U: are low-power processors usually intended for laptops
QM: denomination that was used in the processors for second and third generation laptops (deprecated)
B: processors that use a different architecture than the family to which they belong (deprecated)
And: they are processors for very low consumption laptops
E: identifier used in processors for embedded systems (quite rare)
M: comes from “mobile” (portable, not mobile in this case) and was widely used in the brand’s first laptop processors, although right now they have stopped using it except for some Xeon processors
C: temporarily used in some fifth-generation processors that used the LGA1150 socket
A: It was used in some fourth and fifth generation processors that implemented a BGA1364 socket design.
Deciphering the name of the CPUs
Intel processors within the Core range have different numbers and letters. We will try to explain each of these elements in a simple and clear way. We must emphasize that this is only for Core and Core-X processors, since the rest of the processor groups have other names.
The first digit indicates the family of the processor in question. For example, the Core i9-12900K, what the ’12’ indicates is that this processor belongs to the 12th Generation of Intel Core processors. The next three digits are used to classify the processor within the same range. The higher the 3 digits in the SKU, the better the processor is within that range.
Finally, many of the processors carry a product suffix at the end. This is what gives us additional information, such as if it is a laptop processor, if it supports overclocking or if it is a low consumption processor.
In summary:
Brand: Manufacturer of the processor, which in this case is Intel
Product: In our case it is a Core processor for gaming, but it could perfectly be a Xeon or a Celeron
Range: Division made by Intel according to the number of cores and processing threads, come on, according to performance
Generation Identification: What it tells us is the generation of this processor, the higher this value is, the more recent the processor family will be
SKU: It would come to identify the processor within the range. It may be that within a range there are several SKUs
Product suffix: This indicates certain characteristics or the market for which it is intended
Why do I need to know all this?
When you’re not too knowledgeable in the matter, in this case in PC processors, the names of these devices may sound like Chinese to you and mean nothing to you. However, knowing this data that we have exposed in this article, you will be able to know just by knowing the name what you can expect from any of Intel’s processors, including its range, generation and even relative performance.
It is, therefore, an excellent way to get an idea (not to measure exactly) of what to expect from each of the brand’s processors. After all, we all know that a Core i5 is usually better than a Core i3 and that, in turn, a Core i7 is better than a Core i5, but in this way you will also be able to know its generation, if it can be done overclock and so on (for example, any 10th generation Core i5 is better than a 3rd generation Core i7 in terms of performance, so not just because it’s a Core i7 it’s “good”).
