LAS VEGAS — At its Performance for the Real World event held in Las Vegas Jan. 5, Intel gave the attending press a sneak peek of what’s to come at its CES briefing the next day.
In its benchmark-laced presentation, Intel outlined its core focuses for its processor business: process, architecture, memory, interconnect, software and security.
The first big piece of news is an updated Next Unit Compute (NUC) compact desktop PC. NUC is a 4×4 inch form factor defined by Intel to increase performance for ultra-compact desktop systems, an initiative the company has been focusing on for some years. For 2020, Intel plans on upgrading NUC with up to an Intel Core i9-9980HK processors along with discrete, user-upgradable graphics up to 18 inches and 225W. In addition, the power supply will now be baked into the device itself.
Intel has also announced that 8-core, 16-thread variants of Comet Lake-H processors will come to high-end laptops and workstations soon. Currently, the top-end SKU Comet Lake U processor has 6 cores/12 threads at up to 25W configurable TDP. With an increased core count, Comet Lake-H could demand more power. Intel also said that Comet Lake-H will be able to achieve 5GHz+ frequencies. Although this number is unlikely for all-core clock boost, it’s impressive nonetheless. Intel will be talking more about its Comet Lake H processors at its press event on Monday.
Intel Tiger Lake, the mobile processor microarchitecture that will eventually succeed Ice Lake in 2020, also received a mention. According to Intel, it will feature improved AI DL (deep learning) Boost, second-generation GNA accelerators, and a broader spectrum of integer acceleration including 8bit integer, a number size that’s becoming a popular alternative to long 32-bit floating-point numbers for inferencing and AI training. Tiger Lake will likely be built on Intel’s 10nm++ transistors, a refined and optimized version of its current 10nm process used for Ice Lake.
Intel will be providing more details to each respective technology at its conference today.