Chinese PC Maker Powerstar Rebrands Intel CPU as the P3-01105

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It is more than a passing resemblance, with the substrate QR code thought to match.

Powerstar P3-01105
(Image credit: ITHome)

On Saturday, Chinese computer manufacturer PowerLeader launched a 'new' processor and compact desktop PC. During the press conference, PowerLeader talked about its first generation Powerstar P3-01105 CPU, featuring the "storm core" architecture, described as "extremely high performance," x86 compatible, and offering great support for Windows. And so it should, as it looks very much like a rebranded Intel Core i3-10105(F) Comet Lake CPU with 4C / 8T.

In Chinese tech news media coverage, such as at ITHome, there was no hint given about a partnership with Intel on this rebrand. Instead, we have a quote from a PowerLeader execs talking about how the first gen Powerstar chips were "specially designed for daily desktop users, and are suitable for government, education, energy, industry, finance, medical care, games, and retail, etc." 

As well as the CPU, a new compact tower PC dubbed the PC PT620P, featuring the Powerstar P3-01105 CPU, was unveiled. A statement about this PC's capabilities provided a small hint that the Powerstar P3-01105 wasn't entirely domestic. According to the machine translation of a PowerLeader exec's statement, the new CPU "has extremely high performance, which is several times higher than that of the domestic CPU." There, it was admitted that this isn't a domestic CPU.

One of the last official blurb worth reporting is that PowerLeader says the CPU will be launched shortly, targeting annual CPU sales of 1.5 million units.

(Image credit: ITHome)

It's an Intel Chip, Sherlock

In response to harukaze5719's Tweet about this Powerstar P3-01105 CPU, another Twitterer pointed out that what we are looking at is almost certainly an Intel Core i3-10105(F) Comet Lake CPU. The following clues convincingly point to this:

  • Physical lugged heatspreader design, and other physical characteristics
  • Physical substrate design is identical, as far as we can see
  • Silk screen print format on the IHS is the same
  • The PowerLeader processor name slightly jumbles Intel's: compare "10105" and "01105"
  • They are both marked as capable of a "3.70GHZ" base clock
  • Last but not least, the QR code on the upper right of the Powerstar P3-01105 PCB is said to match Intel's.

There seems to be a weight of evidence pointing to a rebrand, but we await further announcements and third-party tests to ensure it. So please stay tuned for when the truth comes out.

So, why would PowerLeader rebrand an Intel Core i3-10105? All we can find about the underlying reason for this sleight-of-hand with branding is that Chinese tech firms can benefit from attractive subsidies by developing and launching "domestic products." If that is true, it also explains how Innosilicon touted its Fantasy graphics cards as "domestic desktop GPUs," but later, we saw UK-based ImgTec confirm that they used the PowerVR architecture.

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Mark Tyson
Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

6 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bit_user
    Chinese tech firms can benefit from attractive subsidies by developing and launching "domestic products." If that is true, it also explains how Innosilicon touted its Fantasy graphics cards as "domestic desktop GPUs," but later, we saw UK-based ImgTec confirm that they used the PowerVR architecture.
    I assume it's legit for them to use IP from other sources. If not, then you're saying they have to design everything from the PCIe interface to the memory controller, which is pretty nuts.

    Maybe, once the Chinese CPU and GPU industry gets their legs under them, it would make sense to try and scrub any foreign IP from their products, but that's definitely at least a stretch goal, at this point.

    It's also not remotely comparable to simply re-labeling finished foreign products!
    Reply
  • Vanderlindemedia
    AMD does it too with the first generation of it's CPU's.
    Reply
  • sherhi
    This is probably one of those copyright related topics and I would give max 3-4 years of rights to a company, squeeze all you can out of that time and let others lower the price of older tech to the ground so we can go further as a society.

    Anyway, chinese are not that far behind as we in the west think (thanks to mainstream media).
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Vanderlindemedia said:
    AMD does it too with the first generation of it's CPU's.
    Does what? You're saying that Chinese sellers relabeled them for their domestic market?

    You're not referring to this, are you?
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD%E2%80%93Chinese_joint_venture
    That was a one-time deal, happened > 5 years ago, and it involved both AMD and Chinese IP. Definitely not a simple relabeling job. And it proved vital for giving AMD enough capital to get Ryzen to market.
    Reply
  • waltc3
    Years ago, long before AMD's k7 arrived, Chinese resellers were constantly relabeling low-end Intel CPUs to match higher-end Intel CPUs with overclocking and silk-screening (similar to this example). It was this practice by Chinese retailers that prompted Intel to go to CPU MHz clock locking. This looks like something different--maybe Intel trying to get around the recent US government restrictions on sales to Chinese firms? Interesting.
    Reply
  • Avro Arrow
    Vanderlindemedia said:
    AMD does it too with the first generation of it's CPU's.
    I think that the word you were looking for is "did" not "does" because it was back in 1975. You're right though, AMD's first microprocessor was a reverse-engineered Intel 8080. The difference is that AMD paid Intel for cross-licencing and the two companies became allied. In fact, when IBM demanded a reliable second-source for the Intel 8088, Intel selected AMD as that second-source. So that situation did end up being a bit different.

    Don't get me wrong, I honestly don't care if the Chinese did do this to Intel (or anyone else for that matter) because these billion-dollar corporations have abused their positions for decades.
    Reply