Intel 10th Gen Comet Lake CPU Family Leaks With 10-Core, 20-Thread LGA-1200 Flagship
We have been hearing about Intel's upcoming desktop Comet Lake processors for quite some time now, and with there already being mobile variants—we previewed the performance of one in a Dell XPS 13 system rocking a Core i7-10710U CPU—it's a safe bet these new CPUs won't be scrapped. Next year is when they will likely arrive. In the meantime, a new leaks highlights several upcoming SKUs, including a model with 10 cores and 20 threads.
In case you have not been following (or have gotten lost in a sea of codenames and manufacturing nodes), let's talk a bit about the Comet Lake architecture. Intel is labeling its Comet Lake CPUs as being 10th generation parts. Even so, they are yet another product of the company's 14-nanometer manufacturing process, albeit a refined version dubbed 14nm++.
This can get confusing because Intel's Ice Lake CPUs are also labeled as 10th generation parts, though they are built on a 10nm node, unlike Comet Lake. Like Comet Lake, however, Ice Lake is currently only shipping in mobile form, for thin and light laptops.
Leaked Intel Comet Lake Mainstream Desktop CPUs
Okay, back to the leak. Twitter user @momomo_us noticed an interesting dump on Pastebin that presumably outlines a bunch of mainstream Comet Lake desktop processors (Comet Lake-S). Assuming these are real (and we can't vouch for the info), they are the chips that will supplant Intel's current 9th generation lineup, culminating in the Core i9-9900KS (or 9900K, if you don't want to count the special edition SKU).
Here's a screen grab of the Comet Lake dump on Pastebin (edited for easier viewing)...
Source: Pastebin
The data dump lists a bunch of Comet Lake CPUs that are broken up into Core i5 and Core i3 families, along with several Pentium class processors a workstation chip. This is not an all inclusive lineup, though. Notably missing are Core i7 and Core i9 parts.
Leaked Intel Comet Lake Platform Details
Following up on the leak, some apparent Intel slides obtained by WCCFTech might shed some further light on Comet Lake.
Once again, we can't vouch for the slide as being real. If it is, however, then Intel is planning to launch at least one Comet Lake CPU with 10 cores and 20 threads. As for the Comet Lake platform on the desktop, we are looking at up to 30 PCH-H high-speed I/O lanes, up to 40 PCIe 3.0 lanes (16 CPU, up to 24 PCH), integrated USB 3.1 Gen 2x1 (10Gbps) support, Wi-Fi 6 support, and a spattering of other features.
The site posted several other slides as well, including one that details a new LGA 1200 socket. According to the leaked info, it will have the same dimensions as LGA 1151 (37.5mm x 37.5mm), but the keying is shifted to the left side, with more pins to boot. Importantly, Comet Lake will not be electrically or mechanically compatible with current Coffee Lake motherboards.
None of this is official information, of course, though the bulk of it seems plausible if nothing else. It's likely Comet Lake will manifest in mainstream desktop form sometime next year, though, so we still have time to ponder it all and further speculate.
