Encyclopedia
Alder Lake is Intel's codename for the 12th generation of Intel Core processors based on a hybrid architecture utilizing Golden Cove high-performance cores and Gracemont power-efficient cores. It is fabricated using Intel's Intel 7 process, previously referred to as Intel 10 nm Enhanced SuperFin (10ESF). Intel officially announced 12th Gen Intel Core CPUs on October 27, 2021. Intel officially announced 12th Gen Intel Core mobile CPUs and non-K series desktop CPUs on January 4, 2022. Intel officially announced the launch of Alder Lake-P and -U series on February 23, 2022.
- hybrid architecture
- alder
- 10esf
1. Features
1.1. CPU
- Golden Cove high-performance cores ("P-cores")
- Dedicated floating-point adders[1]
- New 6-wide instruction decoder (from 4-wide in Rocket Lake/Tiger Lake) with the ability to fetch up to 32 bytes of instructions per cycle (from 16)[1]
- 12 execution ports (from 10)
- 512 reorder-buffer entries (from 384)
- 6-wide μOP allocations (from 5)
- μOP cache size increased to 4K entries (up from 2.25K)
- AVX-VNNI, a VEX-coded variant of AVX512-VNNI for 256-bit vectors
- AVX-512 (including FP16) is present but disabled by default to match E-cores. On early revisions of microprocessors it still can be enabled on some motherboards with some BIOS versions by disabling the E-cores.[1][2] Intel has physically fused off AVX-512 on later revisions of Alder Lake CPUs.[3]
- ~18% IPC uplift.[4]
- Gracemont power efficient cores ("E-cores")
- Aggregated into 4-core modules with a shared L2 cache
- 256 reorder-buffer entries (up from 208 in Tremont)
- 17 execution ports (up from 12)
- AVX2, FMA and AVX-VNNI
- Skylake-like IPC.[4]
- New instruction set extensions[5]
- Up to 1 TB/s interconnect between cores[1]
- Intel Thread Director, which is a marketing name for Enhanced Hardware Feedback Interface (EHFI). This is a hardware technology to assist the OS thread scheduler with more efficient load distribution between heterogeneous CPU cores.[6] Enabling this new capability requires support in the operating system.
- 4–30 MB L3 cache[1]
- Cores:
1.2. GPU
- Intel Xe (Gen 12.2) GPU
- Up to 96 EU on mobile and 32 EU on desktop[1]
1.3. I/O
- LGA 1700 socket[7] for desktop processors
- BGA Type3 and Type4 HDI for mobile processors[6]
- 20 PCIe lanes from CPU
- Chipset link - DMI 4.0 ×8 link with Intel 600 series PCH chipsets
- DDR5, DDR4, LPDDR5, and LPDDR4 memory support
- Integrated Thunderbolt 4 and WiFi 6E support[9]
2. Dies
For the Alder Lake generation, Intel will initially produce 4 different dies.[4][10] Each die has a different number of P-cores (P) and E-cores (E) and GPU Execution Units.
| Segment | CPU configuration | GPU | Width | Length | Die size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alder Lake-S (desktop) |
8P + 8E (performance) | 32 EU | 10.5 mm | 20.5 mm | 215.25 mm2 |
| 6P + 0E (budget) | 10.5 mm | 15.5 mm | 162.75 mm2 | ||
| Alder Lake-P (mobile) |
6P + 8E | 96 EU | 10.62 mm | 20.45 mm | 217.18 mm2 |
| Alder Lake-M (ultra mobile) |
2P + 8E |
3. Software Support
Alder Lake requires special support from the operating system due to its relatively unusual-for-x86 hybrid nature. For software unable to be upgraded, a UEFI-provided compatibility mode may be used to disable the E cores; it is enabled by the user turning on scroll lock.[11]
3.1. CPUID Incoherence
The P and E cores of Alder Lake CPUs report different CPUID models. As a result, this may cause issues with digital rights management systems that perceive the P and E cores as being separate computers, and falsely enforce license restrictions preventing a particular piece of software from being executed on more than one device at a time. Intel published a list of PC games it identified as having this compatibility issue, and stated that it was working with publishers to develop patches. Some of the games were identified by Intel as only having this bug on Windows 10, and functioning correctly on Windows 11 (with some of them dependent on Windows 11 patches scheduled to be released in November 2021).[11][12]
The Intel Game Dev Guide for Alder Lake also cautions against the use of undefined behavior in bitwise operations, as the two cores can act differently.[13]
3.2. Scheduler Support
Alder Lake's CPU topology has performance implications, especially for gaming environments where the developers are not used to NUMA setups. Microsoft added support for Intel Thread Director (ITD) in Windows 11.[1][14] A wide variety of inputs, including whether a process' window is in the foreground, feeds into the ITD.[15] The ITD can function to a lesser extent with the OS providing less or no cooperation.[16] Support in Linux is merged in kernel 5.18[17] but this alone is not sufficient until the kernel gets hints from userspace in order to schedule tasks to run on certain types of cores.
3.3. Blu-Ray DRM Support
The CPU family no longer features Intel SGX which is a requirement for playing UltraHD Blu-Ray disks.[18]
4. List of 12th Generation Alder Lake Processors
4.1. Desktop Processors (Alder Lake-S)
- All the CPUs support up to 128 GB of DDR4-3200 or DDR5-4800 RAM in dual channel mode.[19]
- Some models feature integrated UHD Graphics 770, UHD Graphics 730 or UHD Graphics 710 GPU with 32/24/16 EUs and base frequency of 300 MHz.
- By default Alder Lake CPUs are configured to run at Turbo Power at all times and Base Power is only guaranteed when P-Cores/E-cores do not exceed the base clock rate.[1]
- Max Turbo Power: the maximum sustained (> 1 s) power dissipation of the processor as limited by current and/or temperature controls. Instantaneous power may exceed Maximum Turbo Power for short durations (≤ 10 ms). Maximum Turbo Power is configurable by system vendor and can be system specific.
*By default, Core i9 12900KS achieves 5.5 GHz only when using Thermal Velocity Boost[20]
| Processor branding |
Model | Cores (threads) |
Base clock rate |
Turbo Boost 2.0 |
Turbo Max 3.0 |
GPU | Smart cache |
Power (W) | Price (USD) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | E | P | E | P | E | P | Model | Max. clock rate |
Base | Turbo | ||||
| Core i9 | 12900KS | 8 (16) | 8 (8) | 3.4 GHz | 2.5 GHz | 5.2 GHz | 4.0 GHz | 5.3 GHz | UHD 770 | 1.55 GHz | 30 MB | 150 W | 241 W | $739 |
| 12900K | 3.2 GHz | 2.4 GHz | 5.1 GHz | 3.9 GHz | 5.2 GHz | 125 W | $589 | |||||||
| 12900KF | N/A | $564 | ||||||||||||
| 12900 | 2.4 GHz | 1.8 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 3.8 GHz | 5.1 GHz | UHD 770 | 1.55 GHz | 65 W | 202 W | $489 | ||||
| 12900F | N/A | $464 | ||||||||||||
| 12900T | 1.4 GHz | 1.0 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 3.6 GHz | 4.9 GHz | UHD 770 | 1.55 GHz | 35 W | 106 W | $489 | ||||
| Core i7 | 12700K | 4 (4) | 3.6 GHz | 2.7 GHz | 4.9 GHz | 3.8 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 1.50 GHz | 25 MB | 125 W | 190 W | $409 | ||
| 12700KF | N/A | $384 | ||||||||||||
| 12700 | 2.1 GHz | 1.6 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 3.6 GHz | 4.9 GHz | UHD 770 | 1.50 GHz | 65 W | 180 W | $339 | ||||
| 12700F | N/A | $314 | ||||||||||||
| 12700T | 1.4 GHz | 1.0 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 3.4 GHz | 4.7 GHz | UHD 770 | 1.50 GHz | 35 W | 99 W | $339 | ||||
| Core i5 | 12600K | 6 (12) | 3.7 GHz | 2.8 GHz | 4.9 GHz | 3.6 GHz | N/A | 1.45 GHz | 20 MB | 125 W | 150 W | $289 | ||
| 12600KF | N/A | $264 | ||||||||||||
| 12600 | N/A | 3.3 GHz | N/A | 4.8 GHz | N/A | UHD 770 | 1.45 GHz | 18 MB | 65 W | 117 W | $223 | |||
| 12600T | 2.1 GHz | 4.6 GHz | 35 W | 74 W | ||||||||||
| 12500 | 3.0 GHz | 65 W | 117 W | $202 | ||||||||||
| 12500T | 2.0 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 35 W | 74 W | ||||||||||
| 12490F[21] | 3.0 GHz | 4.6 GHz | N/A | 20 MB | 65 W | 117 W | ≈$250 | |||||||
| 12400 | 2.5 GHz | 4.4 GHz | UHD 730 | 1.45 GHz | 18 MB | $192 | ||||||||
| 12400F | N/A | $167 | ||||||||||||
| 12400T | 1.8 GHz | 4.2 GHz | UHD 730 | 1.45 GHz | 35 W | 74 W | $192 | |||||||
| Core i3 | 12300 | 4 (8) | 3.5 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 12 MB | 60 W | 89 W | $143 | ||||||
| 12300T | 2.3 GHz | 4.2 GHz | 35 W | 69 W | ||||||||||
| 12100 | 3.3 GHz | 4.3 GHz | 1.40 GHz | 60 W | 89 W | $122 | ||||||||
| 12100F | N/A | 58 W | $97 | |||||||||||
| 12100T | 2.2 GHz | 4.1 GHz | UHD 730 | 1.40 GHz | 35 W | 69 W | $122 | |||||||
| Pentium Gold | G7400 | 2 (4) | 3.7 GHz | N/A | UHD 710 | 1.35 GHz | 6 MB | 46 W | N/A | $64 | ||||
| G7400T | 3.1 GHz | 35 W | ||||||||||||
| Celeron | G6900 | 2 (2) | 3.4 GHz | 1.3 GHz | 4 MB | 46 W | $42 | |||||||
| G6900T | 2.8 GHz | 35 W | ||||||||||||
4.2. Mobile Processors
Alder Lake-H
| Processor branding |
Model | Cores (threads) |
Base clock rate |
Turbo Boost 2.0 |
Iris Xe Graphics | Smart cache |
Power | Price (USD) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | E | P | E | P | E | EUs | Max. freq. | Base | Turbo | ||||
| Core i9 | 12900HK | 6 (12) | 8 (8) | 2.5 GHz | 1.8 GHz | 5.0 GHz | 3.8 GHz | 96 | 1.45 GHz | 24 MB | 45 W | 115 W | $635 |
| 12900H | $617 | ||||||||||||
| Core i7 | 12800H | 2.4 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 3.7 GHz | 1.4 GHz | $457 | |||||||
| 12700H | 2.3 GHz | 1.7 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 3.5 GHz | |||||||||
| 12650H | 4 (4) | 64 | |||||||||||
| Core i5 | 12600H | 4 (8) | 8 (8) | 2.7 GHz | 2.0 GHz | 4.5 GHz | 3.3 GHz | 80 | 18 MB | 95 W | $311 | ||
| 12500H | 2.5 GHz | 1.8 GHz | 1.3 GHz | ||||||||||
| 12450H | 4 (4) | 2.0 GHz | 1.5 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 48 | 1.2 GHz | 12 MB | ||||||
Alder Lake-P
| Processor branding |
Model | Cores (threads) |
Base clock rate |
Turbo Boost 2.0 |
Iris Xe Graphics | Smart cache |
Power | Price (USD) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | E | P | E | P | E | EUs | Max. freq. | Base | Turbo | ||||
| Core i7 | 1280P | 6 (12) | 8 (8) | 1.8 GHz | 1.3 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 3.6 GHz | 96 | 1.45 GHz | 24 MB | 28 W | 64 W | $482 |
| 1270P | 4 (8) | 2.2 GHz | 1.6 GHz | 3.5 GHz | 1.40 GHz | 18 MB | $438 | ||||||
| 1260P | 2.1 GHz | 1.5 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 3.4 GHz | |||||||||
| Core i5 | 1250P | 1.7 GHz | 1.2 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 3.3 GHz | 80 | 12 MB | $320 | |||||
| 1240P | 1.30 GHz | ||||||||||||
| Core i3 | 1220P | 2 (4) | 1.5 GHz | 1.1 GHz | 64 | 1.10 GHz | $281 | ||||||
Alder Lake-U
| Processor branding |
Model | Cores (threads) |
Base clock rate |
Turbo Boost 2.0 |
Iris Xe Graphics | Smart cache |
Power | Price (USD) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | E | P | E | P | E | EUs | Max. freq. | Base | Turbo | ||||
| Core i7 | 1265U | 2 (4) | 8 (8) | 1.8 GHz | 1.3 GHz | 4.8 GHz | 3.6 GHz | 96 | 1.25 GHz | 12 MB | 15 W | 55 W | $426 |
| 1260U | 1.1 GHz | 0.8 GHz | 4.7 GHz | 3.5 GHz | 0.9 GHz | 9 W | 29 W | ||||||
| 1255U | 1.7 GHz | 1.2 GHz | 1.25 GHz | 15 W | 55 W | $426 | |||||||
| 1250U | 1.1 GHz | 0.8 GHz | 0.9 GHz | 9 W | 29 W | ||||||||
| Core i5 | 1245U | 1.6 GHz | 1.2 GHz | 4.4 GHz | 3.3 GHz | 80 | 1.2 GHz | 15 W | 55 W | $309 | |||
| 1240U | 1.1 GHz | 0.8 GHz | 0.9 GHz | 9 W | 29 W | ||||||||
| 1235U | 1.3 GHz | 0.9 GHz | 1.2 GHz | 15 W | 55 W | $309 | |||||||
| 1230U | 1.0 GHz | 0.7 GHz | 0.9 GHz | 9 W | 29 W | ||||||||
| Core i3 | 1215U | 4 (4) | 1.2 GHz | 1.2 GHz | 64 | 1.1 GHz | 10 MB | 15 W | 55 W | $281 | |||
| 1210U | 1.0 GHz | 0.7 GHz | 0.85 GHz | 9 W | 29 W | ||||||||
| Pentium | 8505 | 1 (2) | 1.2 GHz | 0.9 GHz | 48 | 0.9 GHz | 8 MB | 15 W | 55 W | $161 | |||
| 8500 | 1.0 GHz | 0.7 GHz | 0.7 GHz | 9 W | 29 W | ||||||||
| Celeron | 7305 | 1.1 GHz | 0.9 GHz | N/A | 0.9 GHz | 15 W | 55 W | $107 | |||||
| 7300 | 1.0 GHz | 0.7 GHz | 0.7 GHz | 9 W | 29 W | ||||||||
The content is sourced from: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Engineering:Alder_Lake_(microprocessor)
References
- Cutress, Ian; Frumusanu, Andrei (2021-11-04). "The Intel 12th Gen Core i9-12900K Review: Hybrid Performance Brings Hybrid Complexity" (in en). https://www.anandtech.com/show/17047/the-intel-12th-gen-core-i912900k-review-hybrid-performance-brings-hybrid-complexity/2.
- Alcorn, Paul (2021-08-19). "Intel Architecture Day 2021: Alder Lake Chips, Golden Cove and Gracemont Cores" (in en). https://www.tomshardware.com/features/intel-architecture-day-2021-intel-unveils-alder-lake-golden-cove-and-gracemont-cores.
- Alcorn, Paul (2022-03-02). "Intel Nukes Alder Lake's AVX-512 Support, Now Fuses It Off in Silicon" (in en). https://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-nukes-alder-lake-avx-512-now-fuses-it-off-in-silicon.
- Cutress, Ian; Frumusanu, Andrei. "Intel Architecture Day 2021: Alder Lake, Golden Cove, and Gracemont Detailed". https://www.anandtech.com/show/16881/a-deep-dive-into-intels-alder-lake-microarchitectures.
- https://software.intel.com/content/dam/develop/external/us/en/documents-tps/architecture-instruction-set-extensions-programming-reference.pdf
- Cutress, Ian. "Intel Alder Lake: Confirmed x86 Hybrid with Golden Cove and Gracemont for 2021". https://www.anandtech.com/show/15979/intel-alder-lake-confirmed-x86-hybrid-with-golden-cove-and-gracemont-for-2021.
- Subramaniam, Vaidyanathan. "Intel 12th gen Alder Lake-S will use a larger LGA 1700 socket that may last for three generations". https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-12th-gen-Alder-Lake-S-will-use-a-larger-LGA-1700-socket-that-may-last-for-three-generations.463763.0.html.
- Cutress, Ian. "Intel 12th Gen Core Alder Lake for Desktops: Top SKUs Only, Coming November 4th". https://www.anandtech.com/show/16959/intel-innovation-alder-lake-november-4th.
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- "MSI confirms there are two die variants of Alder Lake-S desktop CPUs" (in en-US). https://videocardz.com/newz/msi-confirms-there-are-two-die-variants-of-alder-lake-s-desktop-cpus.
- Orland, Kyle (2021-11-05). "Faulty DRM breaks dozens of games on Intel's Alder Lake CPUs" (in en-us). https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/11/faulty-drm-breaks-dozens-of-games-on-intels-alder-lake-cpus/.
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- "Intel Makes it Official: Hybrid CPU Cores Arrive With Alder Lake - ExtremeTech". https://www.extremetech.com/computing/313803-intel-makes-it-official-hybrid-cpu-cores-arrive-with-alder-lake.
- Cutress, Ian. "Intel 12th Gen Core Alder Lake for Desktops: Top SKUs Only, Coming November 4th". https://www.anandtech.com/show/16959/intel-innovation-alder-lake-november-4th/3.
- "Scheduler Alder Lake není všemocný, Intel počítá s optimalizacemi vývojářů" (in cs). https://diit.cz/clanek/scheduler-alder-lake-neni-vsemocny-intel-pocita-s-optimalizacemi-vyvojaru.
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- "Alder Lake Systems Can't Play UHD Blu-rays" (in en). 2022-01-15. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/alder-lake-systems-arent-able-to-play-uhd-blu-rays.
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- "Intel Core i5-12490F is China exclusive 6-core Alder Lake desktop CPU with 20MB L3 cache". 28 February 2022. https://videocardz.com/newz/intel-core-i5-12490f-is-china-exclusive-6-core-alder-lake-desktop-cpu-with-20mb-l3-cache.
