Reports are flooding the web regarding Intel's total lack of reference to their upcoming Comet Lake family of CPUs, which will be branded under the Intel Core 10000 series. As reports would have it, motherboard makers had stock of LGA 1200 motherboards ready to showcase at CES, but were told to pull them in what is equivalent to a logistical "last minute". It seems that both Intel's lack of commitment to Comet Lake on its CES presentation and absence of ecosystem showcase at this year's CES might have something to do with, well, close to shame on Intel's parts.

Comet Lake will increase the maximum core count for their desktop CPUs up to 10 cores and 20 logical threads. But being built on the same 14 nm process as previous Intel generations since Skylake, there isn't much that can be done to offset increased power consumption. This is why industry sources are claiming Intel decided to skip Comet Lake at this CES - a difficulty to rein in the processors' power consumption in time for the event, with power consumption hitting 300 W. And with Intel's Core i9 10900K being configured with a PL2 (Power Level 2) of 250 W, a maximum 300 W under full load seems more than plausible.

ECS unveiled its latest generation Liva Z3 Plus and Z3E Plus compact desktops. The two implement 15-Watt Intel Core i7 "Comet Lake-U" 6-core/12-thread processors. The only thing setting the two apart from each other is the addition of a 2.5-inch SATA drive bay on the Z3E Plus. Both models support an M.2-2280 SSD with both PCI-Express 3.0 x4 and SATA 6 Gbps wiring. An M.2 E-key slot lets you drop in 802.11ax or 802.11ac WLAN cards. Other networking options include two 1 GbE interfaces, one of which is driven by an Intel i219-V controller.

The Liva Z3 Plus series come with Amazon Alexa built in, with four A4PC (Alexa for PC) microphones listening for natural voice input, while a headset combi-jack handles the rest of the audio. USB connectivity includes three USB 3.1 gen 1, and a USB-C 3.1 gen 1. HDMI 2.0 and mini-DisplayPort 1.2 display outputs make for the rest of them.

Today, at CES 2020, ASUS debuted its latest VivoBook and ZenBook laptop refreshes. The first in the lineup is the VivoBook S series, which is consisting out of VivoBook S333, S433 and S533 models. At the heart of these new laptops is the latest 10th generation of processors from Intel that is giving the ultra-portable notebooks power to perform everyday tasks with ease. In some configurations like S433 and S533, there is a choice of Core i7 and Core i5 Comet Lake CPUs, while the S333 model is rocking Ice Lake at its core. For Comet Lake configurations, there is a choice of Intel Core i7-10510U or Core i5-10210U processor, while Ice Lake powered models have a choice between Intel Core i7-1065G7 or Core i5-1035G1 processors. As far as graphics power goes, users can choose to use Intel iGPU, or add NVIDIA MX series GPU for an additional price increase.

During this year's CES, Intel had an event called the Performance Workshop, where many things were presented. Among those are Intel's upcoming Comet Lake-H CPUs, Ghost Canyon NUC 9, and last but not the least there was a mention of the future Tiger Lake processor and its AI performance. Starting with the Comet Lake-H announcement, Intel promised to deliver 8 core, 16 thread processors that are capable of reaching as high as 5 GHz clock speeds, in a 45 W TDP. These processors are the answer to AMD's upcoming "Renoir" Ryzen 4000 series of mobile processors, which are rumored to feature up to 8 cores and 16 threads as well. The advertised 5 GHz boost on these Comet Lake-H CPUs is for the Core i7 model, while Core i9 SKUs are supposed to reach even higher speeds. All the system improvements tied to Comet Lake like support for WiFi 6, Thunderbolt 3 and Optane memory support are also present on these CPUs.

BIOSTAR have left out a teaser trailer for a new motherboard, which seemingly packs an improvement to the company's RGB design on the heatsinks surrounding the CPU area. While this could simply be a new product announcement for an already existing motherboard lineup, we know fully well that Intel is gearing up for the announcement of their Comet Lake-S family of CPUs, which have already been broadly approached in this publication. It makes sense for motherboard companies, who are certainly already privy to the new Intel platform specifications, to start teasing the new features they've come up with to accompany a new generation of motherboards.

Intel's Comet Lake-S family will introduce builders to the new Intel LGA 1200 socket (some things never do change). The new 10000 series CPUs should see another core bump through the lineup, with the top of the line Core I9-10900K CPU sporting a reported 125 W TDP running through its 10-core, 20-thread design. Considering the number of leaks and additional information that has been recently coming to light regarding Intel's latest CPU launch, it seems plausible that the company is gearing up to an announcement, and as such, motherboard makers are also flexing their marketing muscles to get in the first wave of sales.

Intel's latest NUC (Next Unit of Computing) series of Mini PCs, based on the 10th generation of Intel "Core" processors, is now available for purchase. Dubbed Frost Canyon, this NUC series is featuring Intel's 10th generation Comet Lake CPUs at its base. All of the available configurations are based around the Intel Core i7-10710U processor, Intel i219-V Gigabit Lan, Bluetooth 5.0 and Intel WiFi 6 AX200 networking module. Configurations are varying by the amount of pre-installed RAM and storage and the option of whatever you want OS pre-installed or not.

The NUC 10 supports up to 64 GB of DDR4 memory, while the storage options include space for one 2.5 inch SSD/HDD in smaller variants or two 2.5 inch SSD/HDD drives in taller variants, with one NVMe M.2 SSD slot available in both versions. Pricing starts at $679 for the base models, while higher-end configurations cost upward of $1,295. Additionally, it is worth pointing out that all CPUs inside the new NUC are configured to run at 25 W of TPD, regardless of the model. This will result in higher performance compared to 15 W versions of processors found in most laptop solutions.

Intel's upcoming Core i9-10900K desktop processor is up to 30 percent faster than the Core i9-9900K according to the company, which put out a performance guidance slide that got leaked to the web. Based on the 14 nm "Comet Lake-S" silicon and built for the new LGA1200 platform (Intel 400-series chipset motherboards); the i9-10900K is a 10-core/20-thread processor that leverages increased TDP headroom of 125 W to sustain higher clock-speeds than 9th generation "Coffee Lake Refresh," while also offering a 25% increase in processing muscle over the i9-9900K, thanks to the two additional CPU cores.

In its performance guidance slide, Intel shows the i9-10900K scoring 30% more than the i9-9900K in SPECint_rate_base2006_IC16.0. There's also a 25% boost in floating-point performance, in SPECfp_rate_base2006_IC16.0, which roughly aligns with the additional core count, as both these tests are multi-threaded. Other noteworthy results include a 26% gain in Cinebench R15, and 10% in SYSMark 2014 SE. In tests that don't scale with cores, Intel appears to rely entirely on the increased clock-speeds and improved boosting algorithm to eke out performance gains in the low-to-mid single-digit percentages. Intel is introducing a new clock-speed boosting technology called Thermal Velocity Boost, which can dial up clock-speeds of the i9-10900K up to 5.30 GHz.

MSI debuted the Evoke brand of hardware targeted at creators, with its Radeon RX 5700-series Evoke graphics cards. The company is now planning to extend the brand to a range of other products, beginning with notebooks. The company teased the design of what's allegedly the first Evoke branded notebook, which ships with a minimalist and durable design, and hardware tailored for content-creation applications. The company didn't tease its specs, but you can expect anything from Intel's 10th gen "Comet Lake-H" to AMD's Ryzen 4000 "Renoir" processors, and discrete graphics options that include RX 5500M "Navi" or even Max-Q RTX 20-series. Some of the higher trims could even leverage fast NVMe storage. MSI is expected to launch its Evolve notebooks on 7th January, 2020.

Intel's upcoming LGA1200 mainstream desktop socket (aka socket H5), appears to be cooler-compatible with older LGA115x sockets. This would mean any CPU cooler compatible with sockets LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA1150, and LGA1151, should be mechanically compatible with LGA1200. You'd still need to ensure the cooler has enough thermal capacity to cool some of the higher TDP SKUs such as the range-topping Core i9-10900K.

Comparative mechanical drawings of LGA1200 and LGA1151 were posted by momomo_us and eUUUK50, which show the LGA1200 package to have the same dimensions as the older socket. A picture of the land-grid of an LGA1200 package also leaked to the web, showing how Intel utilized empty bits of the fiberglass substrate to cram in the additional 49 pins, without changing the size of the contacts. The LGA1200 socket debuts with Intel's 10th generation Core "Comet Lake" desktop processors and motherboards based on the company's 400-series chipsets. Intel is expected to launch these processors by Q2-2020.

A 3DMark results database entry confirmed that the 10th generation Core i5 desktop processor will indeed feature HyperThreading (HTT). Based on the 14 nm "Comet Lake" silicon, the next-gen Core i5 processor will be 6-core/12-thread. Besides HTT, the processors will feature higher clock-speeds than their 9th generation counterparts. In the 3DMark validation, a Core i5-10600 processor is referenced, featuring 6 cores and 12 logical processors. The chip has a nominal clock-speed of 3.30 GHz in its name string (a 200 MHz increment over the i5-9600), although its Turbo Boost frequency hasn't been detected properly by SystemInfo.

It's possible that the maximum Turbo Boost will be a similar 100-200 MHz gain over the 4.60 GHz of the i5-9600. It remains to be seen what L3 cache amount Intel gives these chips. The 6-core/12-thread Core i7-8700 has 12 MB, or an additional 512 KB L3 slice per core, to cope with the HTT overhead, although there have been exceptions to this rule in the company's mobile processor lineup. Intel is expected to debut its 10th generation Core "Comet Lake" processor series alongside the Z490 Express chipset in April 2020.

Intel is expected to finally refresh its mainstream desktop platform with the introduction of the 14 nm "Comet Lake-S" processors, in Q2-2020. This sees the introduction of the new LGA1200 socket and Intel 400-series chipsets, led by the Z490 Express at the top. Platform maps of these PCI-Express gen 3.0 based chipsets make them look largely similar to current 300-series platform, with a few changes. For starters, Intel introducing its biggest ACPI change since C6/C7 power states that debuted with "Haswell;" with the introduction of C10 and S0ix Modern Standby power-states, which give your PC an iPad-like availability while sipping minimal power. This idea is slightly different from Smart Connect, in that your web-connected apps and processor work at an extremely low-power (fanless) state, rather than waking your machine up from time to time for the apps to refresh. 400-series chipset motherboards will also feature updated networking interfaces, such as support for 2.5 GbE wired LAN with an Intel i225-series PHY, 802.11ax WiFi 6 WLAN, etc.

HyperThreading will play a big role in making Intel's processor lineup competitive with AMD's given that the underlying microarchitecture offers an identical core design to "Skylake" circa 2015. The entry-level Core i3 chips will be 4-core/8-thread, Core i5 6-core/12-thread, Core i7 8-core/16-thread; and leading the pack will be the Core i9-10900K, a 10-core/20-thread processor. According to a WCCFTech report, this processor will debut in April 2020, which means at CES 2020 in January, we'll get to see some of the first socket LGA1200 motherboards, some even based on the Z490. The platform also mentions an interesting specification: "enhanced core and memory overclocking." This could be the secret ingredient that makes the i9-10900K competitive with the likes of the Ryzen 9 3900X. The LGA1200 platform could be forwards-compatible with "Rocket Lake," which could herald IPC increases on the platform by implementing "Willow Cove" CPU cores.

The "Willow Cove" CPU core design succeeds "Sunny Cove," Intel's first truly new CPU core design in close to 5 years. "Sunny Cove" is implemented in the 10 nm "Ice Lake" microarchitecture, and "Willow Cove" cores are expected to debut with the 10 nm+ "Tiger Lake." It turns out that Intel is working to adapt "Willow Cove" CPU cores onto a 14 nm microarchitecture, and "Rocket Lake" could be it.

Twitter user @chiakokhua, a retired VLSI engineer with high hit-rate on CPU microarchitecture news, made sense of technical documents to point out that "Rocket Lake" is essentially a 14 nm adaptation of "Tiger Lake," but with the iGPU shrunk significantly, to make room for the larger CPU cores. The Gen12 iGPU on "Rocket Lake-S" will feature just 32 execution units (EUs), whilst on "Tiger Lake," it has three times the muscle, with 96 EUs. "Rocket Lake" also replaces "Tiger Lake's" FIVR (fully-integrated voltage regulation) with a conventional SVID VRM architecture.

PC major Dell in its quarterly results call blamed Intel for cuts in its revenue forecast for 2019 (full year) sales. "Intel CPU shortages have worsened qtr-over-qtr, impacting our commercial PC and premium consumer PC Q4 forecasted shipments," said Dell COO Jeffrey Clarke. Intel's CPU shortages are caused due to demand in the PC and server markets significantly outpacing supply, and not because Intel is supplying below its capacity. The company increased its capex toward manufacturer by $1 billion YoY, retrofitting its manufacturing facilities to make 14 nm processors, all while juggling resources to execute its 10 nm rollout for high-volume mobile and high-margin server processors.

The company hasn't launched 10 nm desktop or HEDT processors, yet, and is reportedly preparing yet another 14 nm line of processors for these platforms, codenamed "Comet Lake." This microarchitecture has also seen a mobile rollout for mainstream mobile form-factors, while Intel focused 10 nm "Ice Lake" for ultraportables and ultra low-power form-factors. Intel executive VP for sales Michelle Johnston Holthaus recently wrote a letter to its customers (primarily companies like Dell,) informing them that despite their best efforts, demand continues to beat supply, and that they hadn't managed to solve their supply issues.

MSI updated its Cubi line of NUC-like mini-PCs with the new Cubi 5 10M, powered by 10th generation Core "Comet Lake" mobile processors. Measuring 124 mm x 124 mm X 53.7 mm (WxDxH), and weighing 550 g (excluding the power-brick), the Cubi 5 10M is powered by a Core i7 "Comet Lake-U" SoC (either i7-10510U quad-core or i7-10710U six-core), with its integrated UHD Graphics putting out pixels. Two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots let you drop in up to 64 GB of dual-channel memory, while your storage options are an M.2-2280 slot with both PCI-Express 3.0 x4 and SATA 6 Gbps wiring, and a 2.5-inch drive bay with SATA 6 Gbps. Connectivity includes USB 3.2 gen 1 type-C and type-A ports along the front panel, next to the audio jacks; additional type-A gen 1 ports at the rear; DisplayPort and HDMI making up the display outputs; a gigabit Ethernet interface driven by an Intel i219-V controller, and Intel AX201 WLAN card that provides 802.11ax and Bluetooth 5.0. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Here are some of the first pictures of Intel's new generation "Frost Canyon" NUC based on the company's 10th generation Core "Comet Lake-U" SoC. The top-spec variant, NUC10i7FN, is powered by a Core i7-10710U SoC, which packs a 6-core/12-thread CPU with 12 MB L3 cache, up to 4.70 GHz Turbo Boost, UHD Graphics clocked at 1.15 GHz, and 25 W cTDP (configurable TDP). The middle variant, NUC10i5FN, is powered by the 4-core/8-thread Core i5-10210U (up to 4.20 GHz CPU Turbo Boost, UHD Graphics with up to 1.00 GHz clocks, 8 MB L3 cache, and 25 W cTDP). At the entry level is the NUC10i3FN powered by the Core i3-10110U (2-core/4-thread CPU clocked up to 4.10 GHz, 4 MB L3 cache, UHD Graphics clocked up to 1.00 GHz, and 25 W cTDP).

Physically, these 10th generation NUCs look similar to their "Coffee Lake" powered predecessors codenamed "Bean Canyon," with the exception of just one each type-C and type-A USB 3.2 front panel ports. Other connectivity includes possible Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax WLAN), 1 GbE, HDMI 2.0, Thunderbolt 3 with DP output on the top model, and an additional pair of 10 Gbps USB 3.2 ports. Intel is likely to launch "Frost Canyon" on December 12.

Intel in a quick rebuttal to the earlier reports from Monday, clarified that desktop processors based on the 10 nm silicon fabrication node are still on the company's roadmap. "We continue to make great progress on 10 nm, and our current roadmap of 10 nm products includes desktop," the company said in its one-liner. Monday's reports predicted a horror story where Intel would drag its 14 nm "Skylake" derived microarchitecture through to 2022, at which point it would be 7 years old.

The Tom's Hardware report that posts the statement, however, pins 14 nm to still last till 2021, if not the 2022 date predicted in the HardwareLuxx report. Intel will sell "Comet Lake" through 2020, succeeded by "Rocket Lake," which takes up much of 2021. Towards the end of 2021, Intel will release a desktop processor based on its matured 10 nm++ silicon fabrication node, which will lead the company into 2022, when it finally launches 7 nm EUV-based desktop chips.

In a shocking piece of news, Intel has reportedly scrapped plans to launch its 10 nm "Ice Lake" microarchitecture on the client desktop platform. The company will confine its 10 nm microarchitectures, "Ice Lake" and "Tiger Lake" to only the mobile platform, while the desktop platform will see derivatives of "Skylake" hold Intel's fort under the year 2022! Intel gambles that with HyperThreading enabled across the board and increased clock-speeds, it can restore competitiveness with AMD's 7 nm "Zen 2" Ryzen processors with its "Comet Lake" silicon that offers core-counts of up to 10.

"Comet Lake" will be succeeded in 2021 by the 14 nm "Rocket Lake" silicon, which somehow combines a Gen12 iGPU with "Skylake" derived CPU cores, and possibly increased core-counts and clock speeds over "Comet Lake." It's only 2022 that Intel will ship out a truly new microarchitecture on the desktop platform, with "Meteor Lake." This chip will be built on Intel's swanky 7 nm EUV silicon fabrication node, and possibly integrate CPU cores more advanced than even "Willow Cove," possibly "Golden Cove."

Intel's 10th generation Core desktop processor lineup, based on the 14 nm "Comet Lake" silicon, will begin with the Core i3-10100 succeeding the Core i3-9100 and i3-8100. To squeeze the most out of the microarchitecture that's essentially identical to "Skylake," Intel has decided to enable HyperThreading across the Core processor family, which means the i3-10100 is a 4-core/8-thread chip. Interestingly, Intel has given it just 6 MB of shared L3 cache. It's likely that the slightly beefed up i3-103xx will be differentiated with 8 MB of L3 cache. The chip has the same 3.60 GHz nominal frequency, and an unknown degree of Turbo Boost. The current-gen i3-9100 features Turbo Boost, so it's likely that its successor will also get the feature.

A SiSoft SANDRA online database entry for the i3-10100 surfaced, where it has an overall score of 382.61 MPix/s using multimedia tests, a significal step up from the roughly 290 MPix/s of the i3-9100 (a 31 percent performance increase). This increase in performance can be attributed to HyperThreading, as SANDRA's multimedia tests leverage it efficiently. Intel is expected to launch the Core i3-10100 around the $120 mark, competing with AMD's Ryzen 3 3200G.

TUM_APISAK has done of his well-regarded snoopings again, and this one could have relevant information for the democratization of threads in next-gen Intel products. Intel has been slowly (as they can) increasing the amount of cores and threads in their respective product lines across i3, i5, and i7 CPUs after AMD's Ryzen onslaught. Luckily, from two core, four-thread Core i3 of a few years ago, we now seem to be entering a new era for entry-level computing, with a new SiSoftware benchmark seemingly showing an Intel next-gen "Comet Lake" Core i3 CPU sporting 4 physical threads with Hyper Threading enabled (so, basically, the equivalent of Skylake Core i7's from just three years ago).

The benchmark submission lists what appears to be a four-core, eight-thread Core i3-10100. It sports a 3.6 GHz base clock, which likely isn't final, so take that frequency with a grain of salt. This shuffle in the low-end definitely means an upscale in Intel's more powerful lineups, with HyperThreading likely being active for all of their product stack across Comet Lake - 4C, 8T Core i3; 6C, 12T Core i5; 8C, 16T Core i7; and a likely 10C, 20T Core i9 10900K that straddles the line between consumer and HEDT platforms. Of course, remember these are still built upon the 14 nm process, give or take a few "+" symbols, so don't expect too much in terms of energy efficiency gains.

Intel is inching closer to the launch of its socket LGA1200 mainstream desktop platform based on its 400-series chipset and 14 nm "Comet Lake-S" silicon. The platform provides a forward upgrade path to the company's 10 nm "Ice Lake-S" processors when they come out. "Comet Lake-S" is a derivative of the "Skylake" microarchitecture that's been scaled up to 10 CPU cores, and HyperThreading enabled across the board, with clock speeds pushed to the limits of the 14 nm silicon fabrication process. The TDP of some of these parts is reportedly set as high as 125 W. GIGABYTE is ready with dozens of motherboards for these processors, based on one of five chipsets - Z490, H470, Q470, B460, and H410.

The Intel Z490 Express will be the top-end chipset geared toward gamers and enthusiasts wanting to overclock their processors. The H470 will be a slight step down, and possibly lack multi-GPU and CPU overclocking support. The Q470 is its twin with certain enterprise-relevant features. The B460 is the mid-range chipset, targeting a spectrum of users including gamers who don't overclock their CPU. The H410 will be the entry-level chipset for everyone else. What's interesting about GIGABYTE's list of motherboards filed for regulatory clearance from the Eurasian Economic Commission, is that is looks partial. There are far too few AORUS-branded products.

AMD updated its technology roadmaps to reflect a 2020 launch window for its upcoming CPU and graphics architectures, "Zen 3" and RDNA2. The two will be based on 7 nm+ , which is AMD-speak for the 7 nanometer EUV silicon fabrication process at TSMC, that promises a significant 20 percent increase in transistor-densities, giving AMD high transistor budgets and more clock-speed headroom. The roadmap slides however hint that unlike the "Zen 2" and RDNA simultaneous launch on 7th July 2019, the next-generation launches may not be simultaneous.

The slide for CPU microarchitecture states that the design phase of "Zen 3" is complete, and that the microarchitecture team has already moved on to develop "Zen 4." This means AMD is now developing products that implement "Zen 3." On the other hand, RDNA2 is still in design phase. The crude x-axis on both slides that denotes year of expected shipping, too appears to suggest that "Zen 3" based products will precede RDNA2 based ones. "Zen 3" will be AMD's first response to Intel's "Comet Lake-S" or even "Ice Lake-S," if the latter comes to fruition before Computex 2020. In the run up to RDNA2, AMD will scale up RDNA a notch larger with the "Navi 12" silicon to compete with graphics cards based on NVIDIA's "TU104" silicon. "Zen 2" will receive product stack additions in the form of a new 16-core Ryzen 9-series chip later this month, and the 3rd generation Ryzen Threadripper family.

Taking the lead in producing laptops for creators, MSI continues to expand its dream-weaver series, now unveiling a complete product line designed specifically for creatives and content creators. MSI presents the world's very first laptops equipped with the latest best-in-class processors; its newest technological innovation will make a grand debut with Intel at the IFA exhibition from September 6th to 11th. The industry pioneering Prestige 14 & 15 feature the most powerful 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and True Pixel display. A must-have product paired with top-performing technology that will undoubtedly fulfill and enhance the life's work of creators.

As creative devices and software continue to improve, heavy computing ability has become a crucial function for creators. MSI, always striving to create breakthrough technologies and achieve innovative excellence, has introduced the pioneering Prestige and Modern series. Outfitted with the latest processor, the Prestige series are the world's first laptops powered by a 10th Gen Intel 6-core CPU and deliver at least 50% faster performance for a more fluid creative workflow, especially during multi-threaded processing.

Today, Intel introduced eight additional 10th Gen Intel Core processors for modern laptop computing. The new mobile PC processors (formerly code-named "Comet Lake") are tailor-made to deliver increased productivity and performance scaling for demanding, multi-threaded workloads while still enabling thin-and-light laptop and 2 in 1 designs with uncompromising battery life. These processors are performance powerhouses that bring double digit performance gains compared with the previous generation. The lineup also includes Intel's first 6-core processor in the U-series, faster CPU frequencies, faster memory interfaces and the industry redefining connectivity with Intel Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) and broader scaling of Thunderbolt 3. More than 90 additional designs based on the 10th Gen Intel Core processor family will hit the shelves for the holiday season.

"Our 10th Gen Intel Core mobile processors provide customers with the industry-leading range of products that deliver the best balance of performance, features, power and design for their specific needs. From multitasking to everyday content creation, the newest additions to the family scale performance for even higher levels of productivity -- in addition to offering best-in-class platform connectivity via Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) and Thunderbolt 3 that people expect with 10th Gen," said Chris Walker, Intel corporate vice president and general manager of Mobility Client Platforms in the Client Computing Group.

Earlier this week, news of Intel's 10th generation Core "Comet Lake" processors did rounds as the company's short-term response to AMD's 3rd generation Ryzen processors. According to slides leaked to the web by Hong Kong-based tech publication XFastest, "Comet Lake" isn't Intel's short-term reaction to "Zen 2," but rather all it has left to launch. These processors won't launch before 2020, the slide suggests, meaning that AMD will enjoy a free rein over the processor market until the turn of the year, including the all-important Holday shopping season.

More importantly, the slide suggests that "Comet Lake" will have a market presence spanning Q1 and Q2 2020, meaning that the 10 nm "Ice Lake" won't arrive on the desktop platform until at least Q3 2020. It's likely that the LGA1200 platform which debuts with "Comet Lake" will extend to "Ice Lake," so consumers aren't forced to buy a new motherboard within a span of six months. The platform diagram put out in another slide junks the idea of an on-package MCM of the processor and PCH dies (which was likely ripped off from the "Ice Lake-Y" MCM platform diagram).

Intel's short-term reaction to AMD's 3rd generation Ryzen processor family is the 10th generation Core "Comet Lake." These processors are based on existing "Skylake" cores, but have core-counts increased at the top-end, and HyperThreading enabled across the entire lineup. The Core i3 series are now 4-core/8-thread; the Core i5 series a 6-core/12-thread, the Core i7 series are 8-core/16-thread, and the new Core i9 series are 10-core/20-thread. Besides core-counts, Intel has given its 14 nanometer node one last step of refinement to come up with the new 14 nm+++ nodelet. This enables Intel to significantly dial up clock speeds across the board. These processors come in the new LGA1159 package, and are not backwards-compatible with LGA1151 motherboards. These chips also appear to feature an on-package PCH, instead of chipset on the motherboard.

Leading the pack is the Core i9-10900KF, a 10-core/20-thread chip clocked at 4.60 GHz with 5.20 GHz Turbo Boost, 20 MB of shared L3 cache, native support for DDR4-3200, and a TDP of 105 W. Intel's new 10-core die appears to physically lack an iGPU, since none of the other Core i9 10-core models offer integrated graphics. For this reason, all three processor models have the "F" brand extension denoting lack of integrated graphics. The i9-10900KF is closely followed by the i9-10900F clocked at 4.40/5.20 GHz, the lack of an unlocked multiplier, and 95 W TDP rating. The most affordable 10-core part is the i9-10800F, clocked at 4.20 GHz with 5.00 GHz boost, and a TDP of just 65 W. Intel has set ambitious prices for these chips. The i9-10900KF is priced at $499, followed by the i9-10900F at $449, and the i9-10800F at $409.