Intel Alder Lake-S: the big.LITTLE architecture applied to desktop CPUs

Intel Alder Lake-S it may be the first generation of US company desktop processors to use one new big.LITTLE ARM-style architecture, this at least is what a recent indiscretion from China suggests which, with a slide attached, reveals what would be the first solutions of this type by the colossus of Santa Clara.

big.LITTLE is an approach that has given good results in the mobile field, a desktop application however it would not be very easy to integrate and motivate, despite Intel itself is "moving" from the now outdated monolithic approach towards solutions with 3D packaging (Foveros) – a concrete example is the 10nm SoC Lakefield presented at CES 2019.

Always taking into account that this is an unofficial news, the accompanying slide shows how the Alder Lake-S processors will offer top of the range solutions up to 16 cores with integrated GPU; the cores are not all the same but divided into two groups, 8 "big core" and 8 "small core", probably with different performances and consumptions. At the moment there are no further technical details about it (see frequency / cache), it is also not clear with which production process and architecture the cores will be produced (10nm is rumored).

Alder Lake processors should then use the new LGA1700 socket and offer configurations up to 16 cores with TDP at 125Wtherefore in line with the next generation top of the range models Intel Core 10th gen expected for April. The slide actually refers to a variant with TDP at 150W (details are missing) and confirms further two lower-end models with TDP set to 80W.

The first is always an 8 + 8 core – probably with lower frequencies – the second is an hexa-core (always with iGPU) that does not require the use of low-consumption cores. These at the moment the rumors, Intel for its part has not yet commented on the news that, if confirmed, would indicate a clear change of course of the manufacturer in the desktop CPU.