The Intel Core i3-8121U was a mobile processor with 2 cores, launched in May 2018. It is part of the Core i3 lineup, using the Kaby Lake-U Refresh architecture with BGA 1440. Thanks to Intel Hyper-Threading the core-count is effectively doubled, to 4 threads. Core i3-8121U has 4 MB of L3 cache and operates at 2.2 GHz by default, but can boost up to 3.2 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is making the Core i3-8121U on a 10 nm production node, the transistor count is unknown. The multiplier is locked on Core i3-8121U, which limits its overclocking potential.
With a TDP of 15 W, the Core i3-8121U consumes very little energy. Intel's processor supports DDR4 memory with a dual-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 2400 MT/s, but with overclocking (and the right memory modules) you can go even higher. For communication with other components in the computer, Core i3-8121U uses a PCI-Express Gen 3 connection.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Core i3-8121U, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Additionally, IOMMU virtualization (PCI passthrough) is supported, so that guest virtual machines may directly use host hardware. Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) can run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications. Besides AVX, Intel has added support for the newer AVX2 and AVX-512 instructions, too.