Intel Alder Lake-N with small “Gracemont” cores discovered

Alder Lake processors have already found their way to desktops and laptops. However, low TDP platforms have yet to be addressed. That should change soon though, as references to new low-power Alder Lake processors have been discovered in new Linux drivers. 

According to the Linux driver of the SOF project found by Coelcanth's Dream (via Andreas Schilling), the Alder Lake-N processors will exclusively use the small “Gracemont” cores. In addition, these chips won't feature any PCIe lanes from the CPU, but the chipset will still offer 9x lanes.

Despite the lack of Golden Cove cores, these processors will still feature up to 8x without HyperThreading. In addition, these processors are expected to pack a GT1 Gen12 iGPU with up to 32 EUs, the same graphics unit used on Alder Lake-S desktop CPUs.

Based on the specifications that we've shared, the Alder Lake-N chips look to be an entry-level solution for portable devices such as Chromebooks and budget Windows laptops. However, they could also be used as ultra-low-power CPUs for embedded systems, succeeding the Atom ‘Elkhart Lake' processors.

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KitGuru says: While we may see the same iGPU in use across Alder Lake-S and Alder Lake-N, the latter should operate at lower frequencies due to stricter power targets. 

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