Intel seems to have been quietly introducing a new 10nm CPU for desktops. The company’s website shows, among other things, an unannounced Intel Core i9-11900KB, which is based on the Tiger Lake architecture, which was previously reserved for laptops.
The Intel Core i9-11900KB quietly appeared on Intel’s Ark website, also noted Twitter user momomo_us on. In addition, Core-i3, Core-i5 and Core-i7 variants of such desktop processors have also appeared, all of which also have a B suffix in the product name. According to that website, the processors are made on Intel’s 10nm process. Strictly speaking, this would be the first desktop CPUs to be made at 10nm.
There have previously been doubts about the authenticity of these processors; for example, several argued that the clock speeds might be wrong, writes VideoCardz. For example, the product pages on Intel’s website mention Thermal Velocity turbo frequencies of 5.3GHz for all models, which is very high. The maximum ‘regular’ turbo frequency would be up to 4.9GHz, depending on the model.
However, Intel has now confirmed the arrival of these processors to Tom’s Hardware. The company states that these are desktop processors that can be used in small form factor PCs of OEMs. The processors will have a BGA socket, and will therefore not be available separately.
Intel will also release its Alder Lake CPUs later this year. Those processors are also made on Intel’s 10nm node, and will be available for desktops and laptops. The CPUs would receive support for DDR5 memory and the PCIe 5.0 standard, among other things. The processors also get two different types of cores. The company equips Alder Lake processors with some more powerful Golden Cove cores, and the CPUs also get some energy-efficient Atom cores. The first Alder Lake processors will be released in the second half of 2021, according to Intel, but there is no concrete release date yet.