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Intel Targets Hardware Developers and Unleashes First Wave of 12th Gen Processors

October 31, 2021 by Jake Hertz

Keeping its upward momentum streak going for 2021, Intel is focusing its initiatives on hardware and software developers, as well as introducing six of its 12th Gen Core processors.

Despite some of the setbacks, Intel has been pushing the pedal to the metal so far in 2021. The company started the year with the release of four new processor families at CES and has continued its momentum over the summer with an ambitious roadmap that highlighted its plans for the next five years. 

 

ntel’s new release includes 12th Generation processors with i5, i7, and i9 cores.

Intel’s new release includes 12th Generation processors with i5, i7, and i9 cores. Image used courtesy of Intel

 

Now at the end of 2021, Intel is pushing the envelope even further. This week, Intel hosted its inaugural Intel Innovation event, where it announced several new initiatives along with some new hardware. 

Amongst these releases was the introduction of the first products in Intel’s 12th Generation Core family

This article will delve into Intel's new hardware and an overview of some new initiatives. 

 

12th Gen Intel Core

At Intel Innovation this year, Intel released six new desktop processors, the flagship of which was the new 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900K

Dubbed by Intel as "the world's best gaming processor," the i9-12900K introduces a new hybrid performance architecture that represents an architectural shift for Intel. Featuring a combination of its new Performance-cores (P-cores) and Efficient-cores (E-cores), the i9-12900k comes with up to 16 cores total (8E and 8P), allowing for 24 threads. 

 

Intel's 12th Gen Cores will feature a performance hybrid architecture.

Intel's 12th Gen Cores will feature a performance hybrid architecture. Image used courtesy of Intel

 

Some specs for this new processor include a max turbo boost of up to 5.2 GHz, a maximum memory capacity of 128 GB including 14 MB of L2 cache and 30MB of L3 cache. In terms of power, the i9-12900K features a baseline power consumption of 125 W with a maximum turbo power of 241 W. 

Altogether Intel aims this processor at the gaming market, claiming 100% faster multi-frame rendering and up to 84% more frames per second than its predecessors. 

 

New Initiatives for Developers

Along with new hardware, Intel has announced several new initiatives to support developers.

One of these new initiatives is a new, unified Developer Zone to ease access to technical resources for developers. 

These resources include code samples, reference designs, and tools to specifically help support development in the AI, cloud, 5G, and gaming spaces. Along with these resources comes an improved Intel® DevCloud development environment, allowing developers to test and run workloads on a variety of Intel's latest hardware. 

Intel also released improvements to oneAPI, which is an open, unified, and cross-architecture programming model for central processing units (CPUs) and accelerator architectures. 

 

An overview of oneAPI's cross-architecture performance. Screenshot [video] used courtesy of Intel

 

The new model aims to simplify software development and allow developers to determine the best architecture for their specific problem without modifying code from architecture to architecture. All together, oneAPI has been offering over 900 new features since its release in December 2020. 

 

Intel’s Hot Streak 

It seems that 2021 has been kind to Intel. With time left in the year, the company has announced various impressive releases covering everything from hardware to processing technology to the software ecosystem. 

With its new 12th Generation Core family and a plethora of developer-facing initiatives, it seems Intel is continuing its hot streak. It will be interesting to see what else is this year holds for Intel.

 

Featured image used courtesy of Intel