Intel is introducing its analog to AMD's 3D V-Cache technology with its upcoming Core Ultra Series 4 "Nova Lake" desktop processors. We've known for over a year now, that the company is introducing SKUs with enlarged last-level caches. Technical docs leaks have until now referred to this technology as "bLLC," which simply meant "big last-level cache." We weren't sure if bLLC would be used as a marketing name for the tech, and it turns out, we're right. Apparently, Intel is going with "BFC" as the brand-extension for processor models featuring bLLC.

As we head closer to product launches of these next-generation chips, processor model numbering for these chips have begun to surface. The series will retain the new Core Ultra naming scheme from the current Core Ultra Series 2 "Arrow Lake" generation, but augment this with 4-digit model numbering that somewhat resembles the 4th Gen Core "Haswell" series. The "K" and "KF" brand extensions refer to the chips featuring an upwards unlocked base frequency multiplier; whereas "BFC" refers to the presence of bLLC.It's anyone's guess what "BFC" abbreviates; Intel probably has some clever marketing name for that acronym, such as "big fusion cache," and of course gamers would know what "F" word substitute to use here.

The idea behind bLLC is the same as AMD had for 3D V-Cache. AMD discovered that enlarging the L3 cache of the processor can significantly improve gaming performance of the processor as it places more of the fast-moving game data, such as textures within 1/6th the latency of DRAM. While AMD stacks a slab of L3 cache memory on top of its CCD, over the central region with the on-die L3 cache to achieve a contiguously addressable cache block; Intel may use a different approach, such as having a cache tile sitting beside the Compute tile, with the ringbus of the compute-complex being extended to it, or short-terminating in the absence of it.