At the CES 2024 event, Intel unveiled its latest 15-watt chips, known as the Intel Core Mobile Processors Series 1, designed for lightweight laptops. These new offerings are essentially a rebranded version of last year’s Raptor Lake chips and will be referred to as Core, eliminating the “i”.
To differentiate them from the technologically advanced Meteor Lake, the new chips are simply named Core, excluding the word Ultra. While Core chips cater to the basic tier, Core Ultra serves the higher segment. The new Meteor Lake models occupy the Core Ultra tier, leaving the Core tier for the refreshed Raptor Lake mobile chips.
The company only launched three new Core U-series chips, one each in the Core 7, Core 5, and Core 3 series. Each chip is based on architecture comprising high-performing Raptor Cove cores, power-efficient Gracemont cores, and integrated Xe-LP graphics. However, the updated chips have a slightly higher clock speed than their direct predecessors. In its announcement, Intel did not make any performance claims against competitors.
The Core 7 150U and Core 5 120U models feature eight power-efficient cores and two high-performance cores, yielding a total of 10 cores and 12 threads. Both boast 12 MB of cache, along with 96 and 80 execution units of integrated graphics, respectively. The Core 3 100U, meanwhile, has six cores (two high-performance and four power-efficient), eight threads, 10 MB of cache, and 64 execution units of integrated graphics.
The sole Core 7 model leads in speed, achieving 5.4 GHz on P-cores and 4.0 GHz on E-cores. The new Core 5 model attains 5 and 3.8 GHz, respectively. The Core 3 model overclocks a maximum of 4.7 GHz, with its small cores reaching a maximum of 3.3 GHz. These processors share a base power consumption of 15W, but their maximum power could reach up to 55W in Turbo mode.
The Core Series 1 chips support up to four Thunderbolt 4 ports, WiFi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4. However, the latter two require discrete modules, so manufacturers will likely resort to WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 in many laptops. The new Core processors also support up to 96 GB of DDR5-5200 or DDR4-3200 RAM and provide eight PCIe 4.0 lanes and 12 PCIe 3.0 lanes for an SSD or graphics card.
Laptops powered by the new Intel Core Series 1 processors are expected to be available for purchase within this quarter.
