Intel Lakefield video guides us inside its first hybrid processor

Intel has released a new video to give us a detailed look and breakdown of its upcoming Lakefield hybrid processor.

Lakefield should sound familiar if you caught wind of it during CES 2019, when it was first unveiled as a hybrid processor designed to compete with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon computing APUs. In fact, this new video is actually more of an extended cut of the demo video that Lakefield debuted with at Intel’s keynote.

From the video, we can see the Lakefield processor makes use of the Foveros 3D design packaging to stack a massive array of memory on top of the chips’s main cores, which in themselves contain a mix of 'big' and 'small' CPUs. Intel has told us this chip will use a mix of 10nm Sunny Cove performance-focused CPUs and other 10nm-based smaller low-energy CPUs. 

Aside from those main processor components, we can see other pieces like Intel’s Gen11 integrated graphics as well as interfaces for cameras and hardwired connections, or I/O.

This layout essentially makes the Intel Lakefield processor more like a System on a Chip (SoC) processor you would find in your phone, wherein almost every major component is found on the processor chip, and a major deviation from the monolithic chips typically found in computers today. 

But, don’t think Intel is making a CPU for just phones and tablets, the video ends by showing how Lakefield can power a wide range of devices from traditional notebooks to 2-in-1 convertible and detachable laptops. The footage even suggests dual-screen laptops similar to the Intel Tiger Rapids and Asus Project Precog could get this new hybrid processor.

Intel Lakefield

Image Credit: Intel

Lakefield might seem like a pipe dream, but Intel has promised it will be in production this year. The company has yet to announce a possible ship window, but you can be sure we’ll report the date – and anything else – as soon as we hear it.

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