Alder Lake may be one of Intel's most confusing microarchitectures to date. That's if the latest coreboot patch (spotted via Twitter user La Frite David) is accurate. Apparently, there will be a plethora of core combinations for the chipmaker's upcoming Alder Lake-S and Alder Lake-P CPUs; however, we don't know yet if every configuration will actually make it to market.
Alder Lake has been expected to leverage a hybrid architecture with large and small CPU cores, a setup that's similar to Arm's big.LITTLE technology. Intel first used this design on its 3D Lakefield chips for laptops and dubbed it "Big-Bigger." Alder Lake will bring the concept to desktop PCs.
Logically, Alder Lake-S corresponds to the desktop chips. However, Alder Lake-P remains a mystery. There is some speculation going around that Alder Lake-P could be Intel's Atom P-series.
This radical new design means that Alder Lake-S will command a CPU socket change. Alleged Intel documents suggest that the LGA1700 socket is the designated home for Alder Lake-S. As the name implies, the socket is comprised of 1,700 pins. That's 500 more pins that the existing LGA1200 socket that houses Comet Lake-S and looming Rocket Lake-S processors.
The coreboot patch also shows Platform Controller Hub (PCH) names for Alder Lake. It seems that Intel will use four PCHs with distinct features to cater to the different market segments. The various tiers appear to be Base, Mainstream, Premium and Super.
Intel Alder Lake-S Specifications
| Processor | Big Cores | Small Cores | GPU Cores |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alder Lake-S | 8 | 8 | 1 |
| Alder Lake-S | 8 | 6 | 1 |
| Alder Lake-S | 8 | 4 | 1 |
| Alder Lake-S | 8 | 2 | 1 |
| Alder Lake-S | 8 | 0 | 1 |
| Alder Lake-S | 6 | 8 | 1 |
| Alder Lake-S | 6 | 6 | 1 |
| Alder Lake-S | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| Alder Lake-S | 6 | 2 | 1 |
| Alder Lake-S | 6 | 0 | 1 |
| Alder Lake-S | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| Alder Lake-S | 2 | 0 | 1 |
Alder Lake-S could debut with 12 different combinations. The listings indicate that Intel might offer Alder Lake-S in two flavors: big and small cores or big cores only.
The entry-level SKUs stick to a dual-core and quad-core design with no little cores. On the other hand, the chips with six and eight big cores can come with two, four, six or eight small cores. The flagship Alder Lake-S processor features eight big cores and eight small cores, according to the coreboot codes.
Regardless of the core setup, Alder Lake-S will seemingly be equipped with a single GPU core. The coreboot code lists Alder Lake-S with a GT1 iGPU. It remains to be seen if Alder Lake will exploit Intel's Gen12 Xe graphics though.
Intel Alder Lake-P Specifications
| Processor | Big Cores | Small Cores | GPU Cores |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alder Lake-P | 6 | 8 | 2 |
| Alder Lake-P | 6 | 4 | 2 |
| Alder Lake-P | 4 | 8 | 2 |
| Alder Lake-P | 2 | 8 | 2 |
| Alder Lake-P | 2 | 4 | 2 |
| Alder Lake-P | 2 | 0 | 2 |
Differing from what we just saw with Alder Lake-S, Intel may keep it simple with Alder Lake-P and just deliver the processors in six unique forms.
The entry-level Alder Lake-P chip will reportedly come with just two big cores, with the flagship maxing out at six big cores and eight small cores. What's interesting is that Alder Lake-P is listed with two GPU cores, adding the GT2 iGPU. This suggests that Alder Lake-P will carry more graphical firepower than the standard Alder Lake-S processors.
During Intel's Q2 2020 earnings call, the chipmaker confirmed that Alder Lake-S will arrive in the second half of 2021. Alder Lake, which will probably debut with the Intel 12th Generation moniker, has a heavy load on its shoulders since it'll be Intel's first 10nm desktop processor.
