Well, what do we have here? In the presumably waning days before Intel outs its
Comet Lake-S lineup for the desktop, some pictures and specifications have emerged of what looks to be finalized silicon for the Core i5-10400. We are not ruling out a clever Photoshop manipulation, but assuming the images are real, this does not appear to be an engineering sample.
Why does that matter? Engineering samples are what companies like
Intel and
AMD send out to OEMs and reviewers before a product ships to retail. Later stage ES chips are typically indicative of the final specifications, but there can also be changes made in earlier silicon, such as base clocks and boost clocks. So seeing a leaked retail part is pretty interesting.
The images trace back to an
upload on Imgur. They show the front and back of the Core i5-10400, along with a 2.9GHz base clock stamped onto the integrated heatspreader (IHS). We also get a look at the underbelly, which notably will nestle into a new LGA 1200 socket for the Comet Lake-S series when it launches.
According to past leaks, the Core i5-10400 consists of 6 cores and 12 threads capable of an all-core boost clock of 4GHz, and a single-core boost clock of 4.3GHz. It's also said to feature 12MB of L3 cache and a 65W thermal design power (TDP) rating. None of these details have been confirmed, but they seem like reasonable specifications.
Comet Lake-S represents another release on Intel's 14-nanometer node. In terms of mainstream desktop processors produced on the 14nm node, they include Skylake (August 2015), Kaby Lake (August 2016), and Coffee Lake (October 2017). It doesn't seem Intel is using the "+" designation these days, but if it were to, Comet Lake-S would be 14nm+++, as it is the fourth refinement of the Skylake process node.
If past rumors pan out, Comet Lake-S will culminate in the
Core i9-10900K, an unlocked chip with 10 cores and 20 threads with a 3.7GHz base clock, 4.8GHz all-core boost clock, and up to a 5.3GHz single-core boost clock (via Thermal Velocity Boost), with a 125W TDP.
Thumbnail/Top Image Source:
Imgur