Alleged Intel Alder Lake Mobile CPU Roadmap Leaks With 14-Core Flagship
There is an ever-so-slight chance we could see laptops running on Alder Lake hardware before the end of the year, accordingly to a supposedly leaked roadmap that has surfaced. More likely, actual systems with mobile Alder Lake hardware inside will debut in early 2022, but if the roadmap is accurate, the wait will not be very long either way.
Intel has already go on the record saying it plans to release Alder Lake this year, though the initial launch is expected to be entirely focused on consumer desktop SKUs. In the past, it has been suggested by the rumor mill that the first batch of Alder Lake CPUs will be higher end models, including Intel's upcoming flagship, the Core i9-12900K.
Rumor also has it that Intel will announce Alder Lake sometime this month, and then release the chips to retail in November. So where does that leave the inevitable mobile stack that will follow? Here's a look at the leaked roadmap...
Click to Enlarge (Source: WCCFTech)
If the roadmap is to be believed, Intel's system integrator partners will begin production of higher end mobile Alder Lake-P processors in week 45, which falls in early November. Depending on supply and other factors, it is possible that laptop makers could be ready to go by the end of the year, but our hunch is the mobile lineup won't be announced that soon—perhaps an unveiling at CES in January is in the cards.
According to the roadmap obtained by WCCFTech, Alder Lake-P will span 12-45W solutions with up to 14 cores. If going by past leaks, the top SKUs will feature six high performance Golden Cove cores and eight power efficient Gracemont cores. So we'd be looking at 14-core/20-thread chips at the top of the stack.
It's also noted that Alder Lake-P will feature Xe graphics with up to 96 execution units, as well as support for Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 6E, DDR5 and LPDDR5, and PCI Express 5.0. The way Alder Lake-P is positioned on the roadmap, the lineup will overlaps previous (well, current) generation H-series and U-series products, essentially serving as replacements for both high performance and lower power mobile lineups.
Then there is Alder Lake-M, a mobile series that will take the baton from Intel's ultra-low power Tiger Lake-U series (UP4 models). Alder Lake-M will manifest in 7-15W solutions, just like the lineup it is replace, and be offered with up to 10 cores.
Alder Lake-M will also feature Xe graphics with up to 96 execution units and support Thunderbolt 4 and Wi-Fi 6E. But on the memory side, it will be paired with LPDDR5 and LPDDR4 solutions. It will also hitch its wagon to a narrower bus, that being PCI Express 4.0 instead of 5.0. Production by laptop makers will commence in January 2022.
This roadmap is said to be "fairly new," which suggests it is a current timeline. Only Intel knows for sure, and obviously plans can change. However, everything listed is at least plausible. The bottom line is, the leaked Alder Lake-P/M roadmap suggests laptop makers will be producing systems around mobile Alder Lake CPUs next month, and likely being selling them early next year, which sounds about right to us.
