A new entry has appeared on the Geekbench Browser database—very early this morning—apparently pointing to the lowest model sitting within the ranks of Intel's Alder Lake-N CPU series. According to leaked Geekbench 6.1 test results, as spotted by Benchleaks, the evaluated system was running on an "Intel N50" processor. This truly entry-point 6 W TDP SoC seems to feature two Gracemont efficiency cores with a 997 MHz base clock and a boost capability of 3.4 GHz. You are not getting any hyper-threading here. The integrated GPU is reported to sport 16 Execution Units—the more powerful N200, Core i3-N305 and Core i3-N300 Alder Lake-N siblings have double that count (32 EUs).

The benchmarked N50 system achieved overall scores of 1054 (single core) and 1388 (multi-threaded). Geekbench Browser states that the tested build had 8 GB of RAM (single channel), with the OS being Microsoft Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC (64-bit) on a balanced power plan. VideoCardz was somewhat impressed with the plucky 6 W TDP chip offering comparable performance to decade old CPUs, albeit with a much lower power draw. The N50's single core result positions it closer to Intel fourth Gen Core Haswell mobile processors or first generation Ryzen CPUs, but the multi-core score is a bit of letdown—perhaps comparable to Intel Core 2 and AMD FX series models.

Intel decided to drop the relatively new AVX-512 instruction set for laptop/mobile platforms when it was discovered that it would not work in conjunction with their E-core designs. Alder Lake was the last generation to (semi) support these sets thanks to P-cores agreeing to play nice, albeit with the efficiency side of proceedings disabled (via BIOS settings). Intel chose to fuse off AVX-512 support in production circa early 2022, with AMD picking up the slack soon after and working on the integration of AVX-512 into Zen 4 CPU architecture. The Ryzen 7040 series is the only current generation mobile platform that offers AVX-512 support. Phoronix decided to benchmark a Ryzen 7 7840U against older Intel i7-1165G7 (Tiger Lake) and i7-1065G7 (Ice Lake) SoCs in AVX-512-based workloads.

Team Red's debut foray into AVX-512 was surprisingly performant according to Phoronix's test results—the Ryzen 7 7840U did very well for itself. It outperformed the 1165G7 by 46%, and the older 1065G7 by an impressive 63%. The Ryzen 7 APU was found to attain the highest performance gain with AVX-512 enabled—a 54% performance margin over operating with AVX-512 disabled. In comparison Phoronix found that: "the i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake impact came in at 34% with these AVX-512-heavy benchmarks or 35% with the i7-1065G7 Ice Lake SoC for that generation where AVX-512 on Intel laptops became common."

Durabook, an innovator in purpose-built, rugged computing solutions, today announced upgrading its U11 Rugged Tablet with the 12th Gen Intel processor and other architectural innovations that establish it as the most versatile 11-inch rugged tablet. The U11 rugged tablet solution goes above and beyond standard requirements to elevate the professional user's experience.

Upgrading the U11 CPU to the latest Intel 12th generation Alder Lake platform, with Intel Core i7 and i5 processors, is significant in part because it enables performance up to 225% faster than the previous, 10th Gen CPU. Sporting the Coolfinity fanless thermal solution lets the U11 tablet operate quietly while offering higher reliability and decreasing downtime and repairs that negatively impact productivity. Delivered with Intel Iris Xe Graphics boosts the U11's computing power to process large amounts of data, images, and video feeds in real-time. Packing these and a trove of functions and features into a rugged tablet appeals to professional users that desire the utmost performance with the ease of a tablet.

Chinese tech tipster Enthusiast Citizen (ECSM) has posted on Bilibili about future Intel product refreshes with a rough timeline spanning from late to 2023 to early 2024. We have been hearing a lot lately about Team Blue's Raptor Lake Refresh, with reports from this week suggesting that this lineup will be the last to sport Team Blue's traditional naming scheme—as 14th Gen Core. ECSM claims that Raptor Lake Refresh-K SKUs are due for launch this October, and non-K units will follow them a month or two later. Team Blue will likely be happy to keep LGA 1700 and 1800 sockets alive for another generation.

ECSM also brings up seemingly new information with an alleged Sapphire Rapids Refresh lined up for early 2024—suggesting that updated HEDT Xeon W2500 and W3500 series processors are incoming. The Intel W790 chipset should be able to run this rumored replacement lineup. ECSM's proposed product roadmap also presents wholly new product ranges including Meteor Lake offerings, albeit with desktop MTL-S SKUs cancelled—mobile-oriented Meteor Lake-H seems to be alive and well with an alleged Q4 2023 launch window. Finally Arrow Lake-S is predicted to launch in the final quarter of 2024 or early 2025—so we will likely have to wait another year and a half for upgraded Intel mainstream desktop SKUs.

We've made some serious claims around Framework Laptop 13 battery life improvements with the new 13th Gen Intel Core version, and now it's time to put the product to the test! We've hosted a YouTube livestream to test the battery life of the Framework Laptop 13 (13th Gen Intel Core) vs the Framework Laptop 13 (12th Gen Intel Core). The livestream started at 6 am PT yesterday (June 14) and ran until the batteries died. Both systems were set up to be a typical Performance configuration, and both were running a 1080p video in a loop in Windows 11. Full system specs are listed below, and in the YouTube description.

The two key factors to the improved battery life with the latest Framework Laptops are the new 61 Wh Battery included on i7 configurations, offering 11% greater capacity, and the designed-in efficiency improvements that 13th Gen Intel Core processors deliver.

Introducing the ZBOX Edge MI351, a compact low-profile mini PC that delivers the essential performance for everyday computing at home, office, or business. With its included VESA mounting bracket, the MI351 provides the flexibility needed to mount the system nearly anywhere. Powerful at its thinnest - At only 28 mm (1.12 inches) thin, the ZBOX Edge MI351 provides the performance while leaving a lot desk space left to use. Despite its compact size, the ZBOX Edge MI351 comes equipped with a versatile array of ports to take on a wide range of connectivity and add-ons.

PERFORMANCE OVER THE EDGE
Featuring an Intel N-Series (formerly Alder Lake-N) Processor and fast DDR5 memory support, the ZBOX Edge MI351 is responsive to everyday tasks, and its low power draw makes it a perfect gateway to power anything from IoT-enabled applications and POS systems to home theaters.

Following its successful demonstration of a MIPI camera solution using the UP Squared Pro 7000 at Embedded World, AAEON have announced a MIPI Expansion Kit for the newly released third generation board. Equipped with the Intel Atom Processors x7000E Series, Intel Core i3-N305 Processor and Intel Processor N Series (formerly Alder Lake-N) and an FPC port supporting MIPI-CSI interface, the UP Squared Pro 7000 emphasizes AAEON's continued dedication to bringing the latest Intel technologies to a wider variety of platforms. One such platform is the LI-ADL-ADP-IMX415-MIPI-081H, a 4K MIPI Camera Module from leading intelligent embedded camera creator, Leopard Imaging Inc.

The company recently announced that the camera has been designed with full-function drivers to support the Intel Atom Processors x7000E Series, Intel Core i3-N305 Processor, and Intel Processor N Series (formerly Alder Lake-N), allowing users to take advantage of the peripheral Intel technologies that come with the processor platform, such as Intel UHD Graphics on a Windows 10 IoT Enterprise OS.

Chinese OEM ERYING designed a lineup of Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX desktop motherboards with 12th Gen Intel Core H-segment mobile processors. These are processors originally meant for the mobile platform, but which have been hardwired on these motherboards. Since the processor packages are bare-die BGAs, ERYING is using thick copper heatspreaders that protect the processor underneath, but most importantly, provide cooler compatibility for all aftermarket CPU coolers capable of handling Socket LGA1700 processors. This is a clever way of giving customers choice of aftermarket coolers by simply tossing in a slab of metal that serves as a heatspreader; than using a custom-design fan-heatsink with no upgradability.

Among the mobile processors these boards come with, are the Core i7-12700H (6P+8E), Core i5-12650H (4P+8E), i5-12500H (4P+8E), and i5-12450H (4P+4E). These boards come with conventional 24-pin ATX + 8-pin EPS power inputs, stock Intel clock speeds and power limits; and full-size memory slots, besides PCI-Express Gen 3 x16 and x1 slots, and a plethora of desktop-relevant I/O. Prices range between the equivalent of $286 to $356, depending on the processor used. An interesting feature with these boards is the ability to override the 45 W PL1 of the processors, and unlock PL1 and PL2 up to 95 W, to improve performance.

In response to the increasing demand for powerful computing that can be relied on in a wide range of even the most challenging installation environments, leading industrial computing manufacturer and solution provider, OnLogic (www.onlogic.com), has unveiled their Helix 401 fanless industrial computer. The compact device is designed for use in edge computing, industry 4.0, Internet of Things (IoT), and many other emerging applications and will make its public debut at Embedded World 2023.

"You may never see them, but industrial computers are everywhere, working diligently to power technology solutions of every shape and size. These systems need to be small and reliable while still being just as powerful as high-end desktop machines," says Mike Walsh, Senior Product Manager at OnLogic. "The Helix 401 balances size and performance while providing a wide range of configuration possibilities to help users tailor it to their specific application. It's small enough to fit in your hand, similar in size to Intel's popular NUC, but capable enough to drive advanced automation solutions and power the next great smart agriculture, building automation or energy management innovation."

Over the past month, memory manufacturers started releasing DDR5 memory modules of 24 GB and 48 GB densities, which make up 48 GB (2x 24 GB), 96 GB (2x 48 GB or 4x 24 GB) and even 192 GB (4x 48 GB) capacities. There's only one catch—these modules only work with 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" and 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" processors, as their memory controllers support a maximum of 192 GB of memory, and 24/48/96 GB DIMM densities. MEGAsizeGPU decided to find out what happens when one of these kits is installed on an AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" platform.

A Corsair Vengeance DDR5-5600 48 GB (2x 24 GB) memory kit was installed on a machine consisting of an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X processor, and an ASUS ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming motherboard (BIOS version 1222). It turns out that the machine POSTs, and is able to start the UEFI setup program. Here, the program is able to display the correct 48 GB memory amount, and the memory density of each of the two modules. The trouble is, Windows would not boot, and does not go past the Boot Manager. It halts with an error message that indicates a hardware problem.

Minisforum unveiled the new Intel 12th Mini PC NUCG5 with dual 40 Gbps thunderbolt 4 ports today. Equipped with the powerful Intel Core i5-1240P chip, NUCG5 is even more powerful, capable, and affordable for the edge, business, or home. The Intel Core i5-1240P is a mid-range Alder Lake-P family SoC with 12 cores/16 threads. It has 12 MB of L3 cache and operates at 1700 MHz by default, but it can boost up to 4.4 GHz, depending on the workload. It also integrates the 80 EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics that can run up to 1.30 GHz.

Measuring 109.5 mm long, 110.5 mm wide and 61.6 mm high, NUCG5 is even smaller than the Minisforum UM series lineup such as Minisforum UM560. The dual Thunderbolt 4 ports design makes it stand out among other members.

Intel Corporation today reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2022 financial results. The company also announced that its board of directors has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.365 per share on the company's common stock, which will be payable on March 1, 2023, to shareholders of record as of February 7, 2023.

"Despite the economic and market headwinds, we continued to make good progress on our strategic transformation in Q4, including advancing our product roadmap and improving our operational structure and processes to drive efficiencies while delivering at the low-end of our guided range," said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO. "In 2023, we will continue to navigate the short-term challenges while striving to meet our long-term commitments, including delivering leadership products anchored on open and secure platforms, powered by at-scale manufacturing and supercharged by our incredible team."

EK, the premium liquid cooling hardware manufacturer, is launching the Direct Die product series aimed at delidding and achieving the ultimate cooling of the LGA 1700 socket-based Intel CPUs from the 12th generation Alder Lake and 13th gen Raptor Lake families. Kitguru teamed up with EK to investigate the potential benefits of direct die cooling for Intel's Alder Lake CPUs to achieve the best possible thermal performance on a daily basis. After publishing the first video announcing this collaboration, EK was overwhelmed by the response from Kitguru's audience. In order to bring these products to market, EK reached out to Der8auer, a renowned expert in delidding and direct die applications.

EK has prepared a total of four products to start this Direct Die series: two CPU water blocks (one Limited Edition), a delidding tool, and an upgrade kit for existing EK-Quantum Vector² LGA1700 water blocks. So far, these products are aimed at Intel's LGA1700 socket and 12th and 13th-generation Intel Core CPUs. Delidding is the process of removing the integrated heatspreader (IHS) to reduce the distance between the CPU core die and the coldplate of the CPU cooler. Another benefit involves the removal of an entire layer of thermal transfer from the CPU die to the IHS. The delidding process enables a direct heat transfer from the CPU core to the water block. All this results in a significant reduction in overall thermals and less thermal difference between CPU cores. The procedure is typically performed by experienced enthusiasts because it involves a physical modification of the product that voids the CPU warranty. For a more in-depth explanation, please refer to this EK's blog post on delidding.

With everyone busy enjoying the announcements of new shiny toys at CES, Intel has taken the opportunity to jack up the prices on its older 12th Gen Core processors by around 10 percent. This wasn't entirely unexpected though, as Intel announced back in June of last year that it was going to increase the MSRP of its 12th Gen Core processors. The price increase affects different SKUs wildly differently, as the Core i9-12900K for example, is seeing a US$59 price increase and its new MSRP is now US$648, which is more than the Core i9-13900K which has an MSRP of US$589. On the other hand, the Core i3-12100 only gets a $12 price increase, which puts its new MSRP at US$134, which places it in the same price bracket as the Core i3-13100.

This is a very unusual move by Intel and it affects all of its 12th Gen Core desktop processors and possibly some other SKUs as well. Considering the 13th Gen Core parts are either priced cheaper or fall in the same price bracket, it's hard to see how Intel is going to see any sales of its older 12th Gen Core processors, especially as the two share the same socket. It's highly unlikely that this move will affect its shareholders in a positive way either, as Intel is likely to see lower sales with this price increase of its previous generation of processors, which in turn will result in even lower revenue. That said, it's unclear if this will affect retail pricing or not, as it's possible that many stores won't replenish their stock of 12th Gen Core CPUs once their current stock sells out.

Intel today expanded its 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" Socket LGA1700 desktop processor family with several new 65 W mainstream models. These include all the SKUs that lack an unlocked multiplier, aren't meant for CPU overclocking, and come with slightly lower frequencies and tighter power-management than the unlocked K-series SKUs the company debuted the series with in 2022. The retail packages of these processors include stock Intel fan-heatsinks similar to those the company includes with its 12th Gen "Alder Lake" 65 W processors.

The series is led by the Core i9-13900, an 8P+16E core processor with P-core base frequency of 2.00 GHz, P-core maximum boost frequency of 5.60 GHz, E-core base frequency of 1.50 GHz and 4.20 GHz; and the full 36 MB of L3 cache available on the silicon. The processor base power value is 65 W, and the maximum turbo power is 219 W. Intel lists the MSRP of these processors at $550, a variant without integrated graphics, the i9-13900F, can be had for $524. The Core i7-13700 positioned a notch below, is an 8P+8E processor, with a P-core boost frequency of up to 5.20 GHz, a slightly better 2.10 GHz E-core boost, 30 MB of L3 cache, and the same 219 W MTP value. The i7-13700 is priced at $384, and the iGPU-disabled.

Intel's "Raptor Lake" microarchitecture will go mobile this 2023 International CES, with the company planning to substantially expand its 13th Gen Core processor family for notebooks, ultraportables, convertibles, tablets, and pretty much any PC form-factor that you can carry around. The high-end enthusiast mobile parts see processors in the 55 W to 65 W (or higher) TDP range, and with the same 8P+16E core-configuration as the desktop Core i9-13900K, including support for enthusiast features such as overclocking.

The leaky taps on social media are ready with some of the first benchmarks of Intel's new mobile flagship, the Core i9-13900HX. The Geekbench score of the chip puts it faster than the desktop Core i7-13700K (8P+8E) and Core i9-12900K "Alder Lake" (8P+8E), which enjoy power limits of up to 251 W, base power of 125 W, and a much more relaxed power-management scheme compared to a mobile chip like the i9-13900HX. The processor scores 2039 points in the single-threaded test, and 20493 points in the multi-threaded one, which puts it ahead of the desktop i7-13700K (which in turn is faster than the i9-12900K). Geekbench detects the processor to feature a maximum P-core boost frequency of 5.40 GHz, which isn't too far from the 5.60 GHz of the 65 W desktop i9-13900 (non-K). CES promises to be action-packed with Intel expected to announce dozens of 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" mobile processor SKUs, and NVIDIA expected to announce the first mobile variants of its GeForce RTX 40-series "Ada" GPUs.

AMD is firing full cylinders to release a new line of Ryzen 7000-series "Zen 4" Socket AM5 desktop processors featuring 3D Vertical Cache, at the earliest. Faced with a significant drop in demand due to the slump in the PC industry, and renewed competition from Intel in the form of its 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" processors, the company is looking to launch the Ryzen 7000X3D desktop processors within January 2023, with product unveiling expected at AMD's 2023 International CES event. The 3D Vertical Cache technology had a profound impact on the gaming performance of the older "Zen 3" architecture, bringing it up to levels competitive with those of the 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" processors, and while gaming performance of the Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" processors launched till take match or beat "Alder Lake," they fall behind those of the 13th Gen "Raptor Lake," which is exactly what AMD hopes to remedy with the Ryzen 7000X3D series.

In a report, Korean tech publication Quasar Zone states that AMD is planning to release 16-core/32-thread, 12-core/24-thread, and 8-core/16-thread SKUs in the Ryzen 7000X3D series. These would use one or two "Zen 4" chiplets with stacked 3D Vertical Cache memory. A large amount of cache memory operating at the same speed as the on-die L3 cache, is made contiguous with it and stacked on top of the region of the CCD (chiplet) that has the L3 cache, while the region with the CPU cores has structural silicon that conveys heat to the surface. On "Zen 3," the 32 MB on-die cache is appended with 64 MB of stacked cache memory operating at the same speed, giving the processor 96 MB of L3 cache that's uniformly accessible by all CPU cores on the CCD. This large cache memory positively impacts gaming performance on the Ryzen 7 5800X3D in comparison to the 5800X; and a similar uplift is expected for the 7000X3D series over their regular 7000-series counterparts.

A reliable source with CPU and platform leaks, ECSM_Official, made some new predictions about release timelines of upcoming desktop processors, and how 2023 could play out for Intel and AMD. 2022 is done, with no new desktop processor SKUs expected to launch from either brands. Intel is expected to flesh out its 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" desktop processor family in Q1 2023, with the addition of "locked" non-K SKUs spanning all four brand extensions (i3/i5/i7/i9). Besides these, Intel is expected to launch its new flagship, the Core i9-13900KS, with boost frequencies hitting the 6 GHz mark, in an attempt to ward off the threat from "Zen 4" with 3D Vertical Cache, a technology that springboarded "Zen 3" gaming performance to match that of "Alder Lake."

Both the i9-13900KS and AMD Ryzen 7000X3D processors are expected to launch toward the middle of H1-2023 (March-April). AMD is only expected to launch 6-core/12-thread and 8-core/16-thread SKUs with the 3DV cache technology. These would be single-CCD packages. There's no word on dual-CCD ones with 12-core or 16-core counts, so a Ryzen 9 7950X3D is not on the horizon. AMD is expected to debut its entry-level A620 motherboard chipset in Q2-2023. This chipset reportedly lacks CPU overclocking capability, is expected to lack PCIe Gen 5, and caps memory speed to DDR5-4800.

Nfina Technologies has upped its game in the small form factor PC market with the new 112-i9 NUC. This Mini-PC with the Intel Core i9 Extreme Edition processor, up to 64 GB of RAM, and a choice of integrated or full-length discrete GPU is one powerful package. Originally geared towards gaming, many businesses are finding the intensive operations of the 112-i9 NUC as an attractive solution for business computing, including applications like engineering, content creation, edge computing, and surveillance. This NUC is slightly larger than previous versions, but for important reasons.

Axiomtek, a world-renowned leader relentlessly devoted to the research, development, and manufacturing of innovative and reliable industrial computer products of high efficiency—is glad to introduce the IMB540, a superior industrial ATX motherboard featuring the LGA1700 socket for the 12th generation Intel Core i9/i7/i5/i3 processors (code name: Alder Lake-S). In addition to providing high computing performance, the IMB540 ATX motherboard features quad displays and dual GPU expansion, delivering intelligent workload optimization and highly scalable graphics for next-gen edge AIoT applications.

he Axiomtek's IMB540 is built with Intel R680E chipset and features ranging CPU options with the 12th generation Intel Core, Intel Pentium and Intel Celeron processors. In addition to this, it is equipped with four DDR4-3200 ECC/non-ECC un-buffered Long-DIMM slots with a total capacity of 128 GB. This motherboard has a total of five PCIe slots—two PCIe 4.0 x16 slots and three PCIe x4 slots—for GPU, AI acceleration, frame grabber, NIC, and motion control card configurations. The networking interfaces consist of a 2.5 GbE LAN port with time sensitive networking (TSN), a GbE LAN port, as well as a PCIe Mini Card slot with SIM slot for Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/LTE connectivity. Featuring Intel Iris Xe Graphics, the IMB540 supports up to four independent displays via HDMI, DVI-D, VGA, and DisplayPort.

Intel Alder Lake source code for BIOS/UEFI building and optimization has been leaked in a massive 6 GB leak that appeared on 4chan and GitHub. While this number may seem small, it is a colossal codebase, given that the regular code files take up small space. We assume that the documentation is bundled there as well, however, we can not check ourselves as the repository has been taken down. Tom's Hardware has contacted an Intel representative to talk about the code leak and the rep issued a statement for the website.

Intel SpokespersonOur proprietary UEFI code appears to have been leaked by a third party. We do not believe this exposes any new security vulnerabilities as we do not rely on obfuscation of information as a security measure. This code is covered under our bug bounty program within the Project Circuit Breaker campaign, and we encourage any researchers who may identify potential vulnerabilities to bring them our attention through this program. We are reaching out to both customers and the security research community to keep them informed of this situation.

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices, today announces a list of 600 series motherboards ready to support the latest Intel 13th Gen processors. Codenamed 'Raptor Lake,' the latest 13th generation Intel processors are designed to be far superior to their predecessors. With Intel announcing 15% better single-threaded performance and 41% better multi-threaded performance over the 12th generation processors, user expectations are high for the latest Intel variants with extra emphasis on supported motherboards.

BIOSTAR is proud to announce their list of the previous generation 600 series motherboards ready to support the new Intel processors. This is great news for consumers currently using this platform with an Alder Lake CPU because the latest 13th gen processors support both DDR5 and DDR4 with extremely impressive performance improvements.

An alleged AMD client product roadmap slide leaked to the web confirms the Ryzen 7000X3D series. This also builds on a confirmation by Robert Hallock that 3DV Cache technology remains a continued part of the company's client processor roadmap. The 3DV Cache tech played in instrumental role in shoring up gaming performance of AMD's previous-generation "Zen 3" microarchitecture to levels matching or exceeding those of the Intel "Alder Lake," with a performance uplift in the range of 10 to 25 percent. The expectations for 3DV Cache to work a similar miracle with "Zen 4" are set rather high.

While "Zen 4" has achieved gaming performance parity with "Alder Lake," Intel's next-generation "Raptor Lake" is right around the corner, with the company claiming 10-15% single-threaded performance uplifts that should restore the its gaming performance leadership over AMD. The alleged AMD roadmap does not specify when exactly the Ryzen 7000X3D comes out, but is part of the block that spans Q3-2022, deep into 2023. Rumors are abuzz that the company could unveil the 7000X3D in the first half of 2023.

The upcoming Intel Core i3-N300 is an upcoming entry-level mobile processor that only has "Gracemont" E-cores, no P-cores, and yet somehow isn't branded under Atom or Pentium Silver. This isn't just because Intel retired the entry-level brands in favor of a generic "Intel Inside" brand to be used on entry-level notebooks; but very likely because of the way these chips are architected.

The i3-N300 and i3-N305 were spotted in separate Geekbench submissions discovered by Benchleaks. The chip is identified as having 8 cores and 8 logical processors (threads), but its cache is identified as being 4x 64 KB L1I, with 4x 32 KB L1D, 1x 2 MB L2, and 1x 6 MB L3. It's possible that the chip's design is very similar to a conventional "Alder Lake" processor—with a centralized L3 cache and client interconnect fabric, an uncore, and an iGPU; but with no P-cores, just the two "Gracemont" E-core clusters, each with 2 MB of L2 cache shared among 4 cores.

With the 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" desktop processors, Intel on Tuesday launched its companion motherboard chipset, the Z790. Since "Raptor Lake" desktop is based on the same LGA1700 package as 12th Gen "Alder Lake" desktop; the two are intercompatible—you can use 12th Gen processors with Z790 chipset motherboards out of the box; and you can use 13th Gen processors with Z690 or other 600-series chipset motherboards with the latest BIOS. Z790 chipset essentially sees a re-balancing of the downstream PCIe connectivity, resulting in more PCIe Gen 4 downstream lanes. Besides more downstream connectivity, you get one additional 20 Gbps USB 3.2x2 port.

While the Z690 put out up to 12 downstream PCIe Gen 4 lanes and up to 16 downstream PCIe Gen 3; the new Z790 puts out up to 20 downstream PCIe Gen 4 lanes, and up to 8 downstream PCIe Gen 3. Both chipsets use DMI 4.0 x8 as the chipset bus (connection between the processor and chipset), with bandwidth comparable to PCI-Express 4.0 x8 (128 Gbps per direction). Z790 allows motherboard designers to wire out up to five M.2 NVMe Gen 4 slots attached to the chipset, or deploy more numbers of high-bandwidth onboard devices than those possible with Z690; devices such as discrete USB4 host controllers, Thunderbolt 4 80 Gbps controllers, etc, besides a handful PCIe Gen 4 slots. The 8 PCIe Gen 3 lanes should be enough for lower-bandwidth onboard devices, such as WLAN cards, onboard 2.5 GbE NICs, or even a 10 GbE NIC.