Intel Corp. expanded its lineup of laptop chips over the weekend by introducing two new central processing units and a 5G module for high-speed wireless connectivity.

The company debuted the new products at the virtual Computex chip industry event Sunday evening. 

The new CPUs are both designed to power thin and light laptops. Intel’s computer manufacturer partners already have plans to launch more than 60 new machines based on the processors in time for the holiday season, with the chipmaker saying that customers can expect an up to 25% performance boost.

The first of the two processors, the Core i7-1195G7, features a four-core design that allows it to reach a top speed of up to 5 gigahertz under certain circumstances. It’s the first Intel chip for thin and light laptops capable of reaching such frequencies. 

The processor achieves the 5GHz top speed using a feature called Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0. The performance of a processor is limited by the heat tolerance of its cores because the faster the cores run, the more heat they generate.

Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 increases performance by taking advantage of the fact that, because of manufacturing differences, some of the cores in a processor exit the fabrication machine with higher heat tolerance than the rest of the chip. The feature identifies those cores and boosts their frequency, which is how the Core i7-1195G7 can reach 5GHz.

When the feature is not active, the Core i7-1195G7 runs at a default frequency of 2.9GHz. Graphics are rendered with the help of an integrated Xe-LP Iris graphics processing unit with a 1400MHz top speed and 96 execution units, the GPU equivalent of a core.

Intel’s other new laptop processor is the Core i5-1155G7. It has four cores just like the Core i7-1195G7, but targets less powerful laptops that place a bigger emphasis on efficiency. Intel is promising a 2.5GHz base frequency that goes up to a maximum 4.5GHz. The Core i5-1155G7’s integrated GPU, in turn, is more compact than that of its higher-end counterpart, featuring 80 execution units instead of the 96 in the Core i7-1195G7. 

The CPUs are joining Intel’s Tiger Lake-U processor line, which encompasses over half a dozen different chips for thin and light laptops. The Tiger Lake CPU line is based on Intel’s Willow Cove core design, which the company fabricates using its 10-nanometer SuperFin manufacturing process.

SuperFin features major improvements over Intel’s previous process, including a new version of the power delivery system that carries electricity to transistors. The efficiency of the power delivery system directly influences a processor’s overall efficiency and therefore its performance. Intel’s SuperFin boosts efficiency by reducing the electrical resistance of the tiny wires over which electricity travels to transistors. Intel also made the transistors themselves larger to increase their performance.

Laptop makers can pair Intel’s 10-nanometer CPUs with its new 5G module, the 5G Solution 5000, which debuted today alongside the Tiger Lake-U CPUs. The module is the fruit of a collaboration with MediaTek Inc. and promises up to five times faster connections than Intel’s previous-generation LTE modules. It has drawn strong early interest from computer makers: Intel says that the 5G Solution 5000 is on track to ship with more than 30 laptops next year.

Capping off the list of new products Intel announced today is the NUC 11 Extreme. Intel’s NUC, or Next Unit of Computing, product family is a line of compact desktop computers that includes both consumer machines and enterprise systems, which companies can customize to their requirements. 

The NUC 11 Extreme is a consumer machine that is the first in the product family with support for a standalone graphics card. The result should be faster performance for visually-intensive applications. As for the CPU, Intel will offer users a choice of processor options from its Core i9, Core i7 and Core i5 lines. 

The new products were showcased by Intel at Computex alongside a laptop running on its upcoming Alder Lake core design. The company will make Alder Lake on an improved version of its 10-nanometer processor dubbed Enhanced SuperFin that’s set to begin production 2021. Processors based on the design will reportedly include two separate sets of cores: high-speed primary cores and slower secondary cores with better power efficiency.

Photo: Intel