Intel's new N series: The Pentium Celeron successor only uses small E cores

More than a year after Alder Lake-S, Intel is launching Alder Lake-N, an offshoot that only uses E cores but no P cores. The architecture forms the basis for new CPUs of the “N series”, which will be available as “Intel processor” (inheriting Pentium and Celeron) and as Core i3.

Alder Lake-N (for notebooks) in detail

CPUs with Alder Lake-N will initially be available in BGA format for notebooks with four or eight active E-Cores, with socketed desktop PC variants likely to follow later.

The E-Cores introduced with Alder Lake are CPU cores trimmed for efficiency instead of maximum performance, which are based on the Skylake architecture (6th generation core and later). Alder Lake and Raptor Lake combine E-Cores with the new, significantly stronger P-Cores, which also consume more electrical power.

Intel's new N series based on Alder Lake-N (Image: Intel)

In addition to the E-Cores, Alder Lake-N includes a 32 EU strong iGPU (Xe Low Power), whose video unit masters AV1 decoding, but not encoding in hardware. DDR4, DDR5 and LPDDR5-4800 can be connected as memory. Nine PCIe lanes according to the 3.0 standard are available. Displays can be connected via DisplayPort 1.4 (eDP 1.4 for notebooks) or HDMI 2.0b, Wi-Fi 6E is integrated in the Platform Controller Hub (PCH).

Alder Lake-N versus Jasper Lake

At the start there will be two Core i3 and two “Intel processors” based on Alder Lake N. Compared to Jasper Lake, Intel already promises a considerable increase in performance in both CrossMark and 3DMark for the second smallest SKU, the Intel Processor N200. Jasper Lake CPUs were also unveiled at CES almost exactly two years ago.

Intel's new N- Series based on Alder Lake-N (Image: Intel)

The Core i3 and Intel processors of the N series differ in the number of active cores: the two Core i3 offer 8, the two Intel processors only 4 cores. Because the E-Cores do not master Hyper-Threading, the CPUs only offer so many threads. The Core i3 also offer the slightly higher turbo clock and each have a 32 EU strong iGPU, while the Intel Processor N100 can only come up with 24 EUs.

Alder Lake-N and predecessor Jasper Lake (largest model) Model Cores/Threads max Turbo L2 cache L3 cache Graphics EUs max GPU clock Memory TDP (SDP) The new N series based on Alder Lake-N Intel Core i3-N305 8/8 3.8 GHz 8 MB 6 MB UHD 32 1.25 GHz LPDDR5-4800
DDR5-4800
DDR4-3200 15W Intel Core i3-N300 8/8 3.8GHz 8MB 6MB UHD 32 1.25GHz LPDDR5-4800
DDR5-4800
DDR4-3200 7W Intel Processor N200 4/4 3.7GHz 4MB 6MB UHD 32 750MHz LPDDR5-4800
DDR5-4800
DDR4-3200 6W Intel Processor N100 4/4 3.4GHz 4MB 6MB UHD 24 750MHz LPDDR5-4800
DDR5-4800
DDR4-3200 6W The old N series based on Jasper Lake (fastest model) Pentium Silver N6000 4/4 3.3 GHz 1.5 MB 4 MB UHD 32 850 MHz LPDDR4-2933 6 W

The first notebooks and Chromebooks are to be equipped with the new CPUs in the first quarter. Mini-PCs are to follow later. Traditionally, these solutions round down the larger ones with core CPUs.

ComputerBase received information about this article from Intel under NDA. The only requirement was the earliest possible publication date.