What is icore and generations in laptop?

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What is icore and generations in laptop?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Core i as in coreI5, or coreI7 etc. are part of the Intel Core line of mid- to high-end consumer, workstation, and enthusiast CPUs (the CPU being like the Brain in the computer that does the thinking, AKA Processing).

The Core line started back with the enhanced Pentium M chips with the Core Solo and Core Duo processors.

Then with the birth of 64 bit architecture Intel released the Core 2 Solo, Duo, Quad, and Extreme.

Each new set of releases came from a new design of microarchitecture which leveraged new technology and enhancements in microprocessor design (smaller size, tighter circuitry, which in turn means more transistors per square inch, and shorter connections between them, which ultimately results in faster processing of the same information). Each new set of designs, Intel deemed “Generations”.

After the Core 2 set of releases they had the Core i line, with the Nehalem (their code name) microarchitecture called the first generation, back in 2008.

These generations continued to be developed and released up through the recent years from Nehalem, Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, Haswell, Broadwell, Skylake, Kaby Lake, and currently we’re in the codename Coffee Lake generation of processors, which have a Core i3, i5, i7, and i9 release. Technically we’re actually in the Cannon lake (9th generation) but there’s only a core i3 release for mobile at this time. The next generation, Ice Lake is yet to be released, but will likely be an enhancement on the Architecture of the Kaby/Cannon Lake processors, and will probably be released on a 10nm manufacturing process (10 nanometers, vs 14 nanometers, refers to the size of the aforementioned transistors inside the processor. Remember that smaller means you can fit more inside the chip, and the electrical signals have a shorter distance to travel, resulting in faster speed).

Each level of Core release essentially represents the fact that there are more Cores, meaning more processing units in parallel that can perform functions simultaneously, aka more “threads). The Core i3, for example, has 4 cores capable of processing 4 threads, while the core i9 has 8 cores capable of processing 16 threads. So with the same clock speed (i.e. frequency) the core i9 can do 4 times as much “stuff” as the core i3 in one second of processing time.

It should be noted that the idea of “Generations” isn’t exclusive to laptops. Intel has desktop, mobile, and server releases for many of the generations, based on the market’s needs.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core#Core_i3_5

EDIT: a date

Anonymous 0 Comments

Just to be a little more succinct, the “Core” series is a brand of processors by Intel. For laptops, there are three tiers, i3s, i5s, and i7s. In general, the higher up you go, the more cores and/or the faster speeds you get. Much like mobile phones, processors generally improve year after year, denoted by generations. So a 9th generation i5 is generally better than, say, a 5th generation i5, even if they’re in the same tier and have similar numbers.

Anonymous 0 Comments

An intel processor has a name like this:

i7-9700K or
i5-8200Y

i7, i5 and i3 tell you the intended market segment for the CPU: i7 are performance models, with fully unlocked features. i5 are mainstream parts, with similar specs to i7, but usually lacking some features and slightly lower clock speed. i3 are cheaper parts, with fewer cores. Below i3 there are also celeron and pentium processors, which are the budget models meant for really cheap computers. On top of that, there’s now also i9, which is the high end with many cores.

Each year, intel brings out a new lineup of processors, which bring new features and better performance, occasionally more cores as well. This is the first digit of the number code: a 9700 CPU is from the 9nth generation. The number behind that tells you very little, other than more is usually better. Finally, the letter at the end tells you about special features: T or U means that they use low power, K means that it can be overclocked and H means that it has a more powerful GPU.

So when they tell you “9th generation i7 CPU”, you can assume that it’s a recent, fairly powerful CPU, without looking at the specs. If it’s “5th generation i3”, they’re trying to sell you five years old garbage.

While this is usually dependable, you should also look at the letter suffix of the model, since U CPUs in particular tend to be massively slower than their non-U counterparts.