Even before Intel’s 11th-gen Rocket Lake launch, murmurs about Intel’s succeeding CPU, Alder Lake, have already been making the rounds. Alder Lake will be Intel’s 12th-gen CPU architecture. Aside from moving to a newer socket, one of the biggest changes that Alder Lake will introduce will be its heterogenous CPU architecture that will see the big.LITTLE concept applied to desktop CPUs. Alder Lake-S will be the desktop codename for the 12th-gen Intel CPU lineup and the flagship will feature 16-cores with 24-threads. The reason for the odd multi-threading numbering is that big.LITTLE cores will not have Hyperthreading but will have very high efficient cores. Alder Lake CPUs will be built on Intel’s 10nm SuperFIN process that should also introduce further efficiency improvements especially during idle or low-power usage.
Alder Lake S will introduce Intel Xe LP graphics as the integrated graphics solution as well as bring in DDR5 memory support and PCI Gen5. DDR4 backwards compatibility is expected to also be featured on motherboards supporting LGA1700, the new motherboard socket for Alder Lake S. It is unsure what Alder Lake socket will look like or will it be compatible with LGA115x or LGA1200 cooler mounts.