Whiskey Lake and Amber Lake - Intel Core for the smallest. And effective

Are you still not lost in the intricacies of generations and model lines of Intel Core processors? Then here are two more families: Whiskey Lake and Amber Lake . From their previously presented counterparts in the eighth generation, the new products are distinguished by low power consumption (15 and 5 W, respectively) and a built-in chipset with advanced communication functions.

As follows from the description, the newly introduced families are designed for mobile (Whiskey Lake-U) and ultra mobile (Amber Lake-Y) devices. Energy efficiency and functionality - that's what is in demand in this class. Let's start with the first.

Starting with the far Ivy Bridge, Intel Core processors support Configurable TDP (cTDP) technology - work at low or high base frequencies, depending on workload and temperature conditions. The eighth generation cTDP profile is almost the same as that of its closest predecessors. In the form of a table, it looks like this.



It turns out an interesting picture. If you are limited by the thermal budget, but you want to keep the performance level (who needs what you need), then you can take both Amber Lake in cTDP-Up mode and Whiskey Lake in cTDP-down mode - which, surely, manufacturers will not fail to take advantage of confusion in user minds. We also give a label with other basic characteristics.



As for the chipset integrated into the processor case, the number of integrated communications is increasing, and the communications themselves are becoming faster. The eye pleasing picture looks like this.



So, onboard Whiskey Lake, we have USB (now already 3.1), SATA, LAN, HDMI, Wi-Fi (compared to Caby Lake-R - already gigabit), a memory controller and much more - all this saves space on motherboard to design more efficient cooling and, of course, reduce the cost of the final product. It is expected that in the very near future, the leading manufacturers of ultra and notebook computers will present devices based on Whiskey / Amber Lake processors - among them, Apple is also called, because the MacBook also needs an upgrade from the platform. As expected, among the new products will be models with passive cooling. Soon we will see everything ourselves - there is not much time left to wait.