With Alder Lake CPU later this year, Intel aims to challenge Apple M1 chip

Ever since Apple launched its Silicon processor last year, Intel has been striving hard to prove that its processors are not less powerful. On multiple occasions, Intel has drawn comparisons between its processors and Apple's M1 despite knowing that the interior architecture of its processors does not match that of an Arm processor. At its Architecture Day, Intel previewed its Alder Lake lineup of hybrid processors that will take on the Apple Silicon.

Intel has been preparing for this chipset series for a while. Earlier this year, Intel introduced the new IDM 2.0 strategy, new nomenclatures for process nodes, and new desktop graphics cards. These changes are important for the company as some of them are converging together into the creation of Alder Lake processors. At the helm of 12th Gen Core Alder Lake is the hybrid architecture that includes a mix of both performance and efficiency cores, something that Apple uses in its Silicon cores and is one of the mainstays on mobile processors.

Alder Lake will be the first Intel chip to use the company's new Intel 7 technology mode, which uses the same architecture as the company's 10nm chipsets. The Alder Lake chipset will come with a new x86 performance core, codenamed "Golden Cove" and successor to "Willow Cove". Intel said it is the most powerful core it has ever developed, which means that Alder Lake should be a breakthrough in PC performance. However, Intel only compared the Golden Cove core to the Cypress Cove, which is used on the 10nm architecture and is a little less powerful than the Willow Cove.

The performance core is consistent on Intel CPUs but, for the first time, the company is introducing an efficiency core. Codenamed "Gracemont", the x86 efficiency core, according to Intel, will be the world's most efficient x86 CPU core. According to Intel, one of the efficient cores in Alder Lake can achieve 40 per cent more performance at the same power than a Skylake core for single-threaded cases. These cores will run at low voltage and will handle simpler processes.

Efficiency cores have been there on Intel's Atom processors, meant for handling light tasks that consume less power. Meanwhile, the performance cores have been there in Intel's powerful Core processors, tasked with handling resource-intensive programmes. Combining both kinds of cores in a hybrid model is how Intel wants to go ahead with its chipsets, targeting Apple Silicon that also uses a mix of performance and efficiency cores on the latest MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Alder Lake chips will be the first in the series of these hybrid chipsets and are coming this fall.