Intel Launches First 10th Gen Core Processors Targeting Graphics, AI

Intel on Tuesday kicked off its annual Computex trade show in Taipei where the company launched its first 10th Gen Core processors. The new CPUs, optimized for AI and integrated with new graphics capabilities, are now shipping to partners and are set to appear in PCs in the coming months.

Targeted at premium, small form-factor laptops, the new 10^th Gen processors are the first based on the company’s long-awaited 10nm manufacturing process, replacing the 14nm process now used. The Mobile 10th Gen Intel Core U-Series and Y-Series processors will appear in the next crop of 2- in-1 laptops in the coming months. Intel claims the new 10^th Gen CPUs, codenamed Ice Lake, offer a 2.5x jump in performance, will offer the company’s Deep Learning Boost (DL Boost) and the company’s new Gen11 graphics engine, codenamed Iris Plus.

“It is our most integrated SoC [system on a chip] we’ve ever built,” said Gregory Bryant, SVP and general manager of Intel’s client computing group, speaking during a keynote address at Computex. “Also, it’s the first one that really brings AI at scale into the PC ecosystem.”

Intel’s Gregory Bryant

Intel said it will offer the 10th Gen platform, in i3, i5, and i7 processor configurations with up to four cores and eight threads, with an option for 4.1 max turbo frequency and up to 1.1 GHz graphics frequency. The company’s Iris Plus graphics integrated with the 10th Gen CPUs will boost AI performance by 5x, Intel claims.

It will also add graphics performance that’s twice as fast, targeting mobile professional-level content creators, with support for about 2x HEVC encode, the ability to render 4K HDR in 1 billion colors, according to Intel. The 10th Gen processors will include Thunderbolt 3 and Wi-Fi 6 support, both integrated on the chips, resulting in an increase of up to 3x in wireless speed, according to the company.

Intel also said it has published the 1.0 spec of Project Athena, a design platform announced earlier this year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January to help OEMs develop PCs that are more adaptable to specific conditions, able to boot and charge quickly, and built with the ability to keep users focused and less subject to distractions.

“For the first time collectively, we’ve all come together with our partners to take a meaningful step forward on how we create, measure, specify and verify the [user] experience so we get systems that have no compromise on mobility, no compromise on performance,” Bryant said.

Intel showcased new Gen 10 systems based on Project Athena from Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo.

Meanwhile, Intel also Intel launched added vPro support to its 9th Gen line and rolled out 14 new Xeon E processors for mobile and desktop workstations, targeted at real-time analytics. vPro support adds built-in security and remote management support. The new Intel Xeon E processors will scale up to 8 cores and 16 threads with 5 GHz turbo frequency and will support Wi-Fi 6, Intel’s Optane Memory H10 at up to 128 GB.