Details of upcoming Core i5 and i7 mobile CPUs

This August VR-Zone published slides, detailing Intel mobile roadmap, that covers five quarters from Q3 2012 to Q3 2013. According to the slides, Intel is going to release 5 dual-core Ivy Bridge processors in the first quarter 2013. The new CPUs are Core i5-3340M, i5-3380M and i7-3540M for mainstream notebooks, along with Core i5-3437U and Core i7-3687U for ultrabooks. VR-Zone also provided clock speeds for mainstream Core i5s and i7s. We now have more details on all five SKUs.

The forthcoming microprocessors are based on Ivy Bridge architecture, and integrate two CPU cores with 3 MB L3 cache on Core i5, and 4 MB cache on Core i7 chips. The processors will also have integrated HD 4000 graphics, and a memory controller, supporting DDR3 and DDR3L memory with data rates up to 1600 MHz. Standard features on Core i5 / i7 parts are Turbo Boost and Hyper-Threading. The former feature can temporarily "overclock" one or both cores, and the Hyper-Threading technology doubles the number of threads, that the CPU can execute.

Core i5-3340M, i5-3380M and Core i7-3540M are 35 Watt microprocessors, that are going to replace Core i5-3320M, i5-3360M and Core i7-3520M. New chips will offer slightly better performance, owing to 100 MHz higher stock and turbo CPU frequencies, and to 50 MHz higher maximum graphics Turbo frequency. Core i5-3340M, i5-3380M and i7-3540M are clocked at 2.7 GHz, 2.9 GHz and 3 GHz respectively, and the Turbo Boost feature can increase frequency by 500 MHz for two active cores, and by 700 MHz when one core is idle. On-chip GPU on these parts is clocked at 650 MHz, and can go as high as 1250 MHz on Core i5, and up to 1300 MHz on Core i7 SKU. There will be BGA and PGA versions for each of these CPUs.

Ultra-low voltage Core i5-3437U and i7-3687U products come with lower 17 Watt TDP and lower clock rates, than mainstream mobile processors. Core i5-3437U operates at 1.9 GHz, and up to 2.9 GHz. This CPU will take place of Core i5-3427U, that was available since June 2012. Core i7-3687U runs at 2.1 GHz, and its maximum Turbo Boost frequency is 3.3 GHz. Both models have GPU clocked at 350 MHz, or as high as 1.2 GHz in Turbo mode. The processors will be fabricated in BGA packages.

The summary of features of new CPUs is provided below:

Model	Cores	Threads	Frequency	Turbo Frequency	L3 cache	GPU Frequency	TDP
Core i5-3340M	2	4	2.7 GHz	3.4 GHz	3 MB	650 MHz / 1250 MHz	35 Watt
Core i5-3380M	2	4	2.9 GHz	3.6 GHz	3 MB	650 MHz / 1250 MHz	35 Watt
Core i5-3437U	2	4	1.9 GHz	2.9 GHz	3 MB	350 MHz / 1200 MHz	17 Watt
Core i7-3540M	2	4	3 GHz	3.7 GHz	4 MB	650 MHz / 1300 MHz	35 Watt
Core i7-3687U	2	4	2.1 GHz	3.3 GHz	4 MB	350 MHz / 1200 MHz	17 Watt