Intel Core

Intel Core
	Logo since 2023
General information
Launched	January 2006; 20 years ago
Marketed by	Intel
Designed by	Intel
Common manufacturers	Intel; TSMC;
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate	400 MHz to 6.2 GHz
Physical specifications
Cores	P-cores: 2–10; E-cores: 4–16; Total: 1-24; ;
GPU	Intel Graphics Technology
Sockets	LGA 775; LGA 1156; LGA 1155; LGA 1150; LGA 1151; LGA 1151-2; LGA 1200; LGA 1356 (FCBGA); LGA 1700; LGA 1851;
Cache
L1 cache	Up to 112 KB per P-core; 96 KB per E-core or LP E-core
L2 cache	Core and Core 2: Up to 12 MB; Nehalem-present: Up to 2 MB per P-core and up to 3 MB per E-core cluster
L3 cache	Up to 36 MB
Architecture and classification
Technology node	65 nm to Intel 4 and TSMC N5
Microarchitecture	Core; Nehalem; Westmere; Sandy Bridge; Ivy Bridge; Haswell; Broadwell; Skylake; Sunny Cove; Willow Cove; Cypress Cove; Golden Cove; Raptor Cove; Gracemont; Redwood Cove; Crestmont;
Instruction set	x86-64
Instructions	MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, AVX-512, TSX, AES-NI, FMA3, AVX-VNNI
Extensions	EIST, TXT, VT-x, VT-d, SHA, SGX;
Products, models, variants
Brand names	Core; Core 2; Core i3/i5/i7/i9; Core 3/5/7; Core Ultra 5/7/9;
Variant	Intel Processor (budget CPUs);
History
Predecessors	Pentium; Celeron

Intel Core is a line of multi-core (with the exception of Core Solo and Core 2 Solo) central processing units (CPUs) for midrange, embedded, workstation, high-end, enthusiast, gaming computer and entry-level server markets marketed by Intel Corporation. These processors displaced the existing mid- to high-end Pentium processors at the time of their introduction, moving the Pentium to the mid-range budget market. Identical or more capable versions of Core processors are also sold as Xeon processors for the server and workstation markets.

Core was launched in January 2006 as a mobile-only series, consisting of single-core and dual-core models. It was then succeeded later in July by the Core 2 series, which included both desktop and mobile processors with up to four cores, and introduced 64-bit support.

Since 2008, Intel began introducing the Core i3, Core i5, Core i7 and Core i9 lineup of processors, succeeding Core 2.

A new naming scheme was introduced in 2023, consisting of Core 3, Core 5, and Core 7 for mid-range to high-end processors, and Core Ultra 5, Core Ultra 7, and Core Ultra 9 for super-high-end processors.

Overview

Although Intel Core is a brand that promises no internal consistency or continuity, the processors within this family have been broadly similar.

The first products receiving this designation were the Core Solo and Core Duo Yonah processors for mobile from the Pentium M design tree, fabricated at 65 nm and brought to market in January 2006. These are substantially different in design than the rest of the Intel Core product group, having derived from the Pentium Pro lineage that predated Pentium 4.

The first Intel Core desktop processor—and typical family member—came from the Conroe iteration, a 65 nm dual-core design brought to market in July 2006, based on the Intel Core microarchitecture with substantial enhancements in micro-architectural efficiency and performance, outperforming Pentium 4 across the board (or near to it), while operating at drastically lower clock rates. Maintaining high instructions per cycle (IPC) on a deeply pipelined and resourced out-of-order execution engine has remained a constant fixture of the Intel Core product group ever since.

The new substantial bump in microarchitecture came with the introduction of the 45 nm Bloomfield desktop processor in November 2008 on the Nehalem architecture, whose main advantage came from redesigned I/O and memory systems featuring the new Intel QuickPath Interconnect and an integrated memory controller supporting up to three channels of DDR3 memory.

Subsequent performance improvements have tended toward making additions rather than profound changes, such as adding the Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) instruction set extensions to Sandy Bridge, first released on 32 nm in January 2011. Time has also brought improved support for virtualization and a trend toward higher levels of system integration and management functionality (and along with that, increased performance) through the ongoing evolution of facilities such as Intel Active Management Technology (iAMT).

As of 2017, the Core brand comprised four product lines – the entry level i3, the mainstream i5, the high-end i7, and the "enthusiast" i9. Core i7 was introduced in 2008, followed by i5 in 2009, and i3 in 2010. The first Core i9 models were released in 2017.

In June 2023, Intel announced that the processor branding "Core", with the letter "i" (or moniker) would be dropped, making it "Core 3/5/7/9". The company would introduce the "Ultra" branding for high-end processors as well.^[1] The new naming scheme debuted with the launch of Raptor Lake-U Refresh and Meteor Lake processors in 2024, using the "Core 3/5/7" branding for mainstream processors and "Core Ultra 5/7/9" branding for "premium" high-end processors.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Comparison of Intel Core microarchitectures
Microarchitecture				Core		Nehalem	Sandy Bridge	Haswell	Broadwell	Skylake	Sunny Cove^[a]	Willow Cove	Golden Cove	Raptor Cove
Microarchitecture variants				Merom	Penryn	Westmere	Ivy Bridge	Haswell	Broadwell	Kaby Lake Coffee Lake Comet Lake	Ice Lake Rocket Lake	Tiger Lake	Alder Lake Sapphire Rapids	Raptor Lake Emerald Rapids
Generation (Core i)				-	-	1st	2nd/3rd	4th	5th/6th	6th/7th/8th/9th	10th/11th	11th	12th	13th/14th
Year of inception				2006	2007	2010	2011	2013	2014	2015	2019	2020	2021	2022
Fabrication process (nm)				65	45		32/22	22	14	14+/14++/14+++	10	10SF	10ESF
Cache	μop			N/a			1.5K μops^[5]				2.25K μops		4K μops
	L1	Data	Size	32 KB/core							48 KB/core
			Ways	8 way							12 way
			Latency	3		4					3/5	?	5	?
		Instruction	Size	32 KB/core
			ways	8 way^[6]		4 way	8 way				?	?	8 way	?
			Latency	3			?	?	?	4	5	?	?	?
		TLB		?	?	142	144^[7]	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
	L2		Size	2-3 MB/core		256 KB					512 KB	1.25 MB	2 MB^[b]
			ways	8 way					4 way	8 way	20 way	10 way		?
			Latency	?	?	?	12				13	?	14	?
			TLB	?	?	?	?	1024	?	1536	2048	?	?	?
	L3		Size			2 MB						3 MB		?
			ways			16 way						12 way^[8]
			Latency			?	?	?	?	26-37^[5]	30-36^[5]	43^[9]	74	?
	L4		Size	None				0–128 MB			None	?	?	?
			ways					?	16^[10]	?		?	?	?
			Latency					?	?	?		?	?	?
			Type					GPU Memory only		cache		?	?	?
Hyper-threading				No		Yes
OoOE window				96^[11]		128^[12]	168	192		224^[13]	352	?	512^[14]	?
In-flight			Load	?	?	48	64	72			128	?	192	?
In-flight			Store	?	?	32	36	42		56	72	?	114	?
Scheduler			Entries	32		36	54	60	64	97	160^[15]	?	?	?
Scheduler			Dispatch	?	?	?	?	?	?	8 way	10 way	?	?	?
Register file			Integer	?	?	?	160	168		?	280^[14]	?	280^[14]	?
Register file			Floating-point	?	?	?	144	168		?	224^[14]	?	332^[14]	?
Queue			Instruction	?	?	18/thread	20/thread	20/thread	25/thread	?	?	?	?	?
Queue			Allocation	?	?	28/thread^[c]		56		64/thread	?	?	?	?
Decode				?	?	?	?	?	?	4 + 1		?	6	?
Execution Ports			Numbers	?	?	6^[16]		8^[17]		8^[18]	10	?	12	?
			Port 0			Integer FP Mul Branch	Integer FP Mul Branch	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
			Port 1	?	?	Integer FP Mul	Integer FP Mul	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
			Port 2	?	?	Load Address	Load Store Address	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
			Port 3	?	?	Store Address	Store Load Address	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
			Port 4	?	?	Store Data	Store Data	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
			Port 5	?	?	Integer	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
			Port 6	N/a^[17]				Integer Branch		?	?	?	?	?
			Port 7	N/a^[17]				Store Address		?	?	?	?	?
AGUs				?	?	?	?	?	?	2 + 1	2 + 2	?	?	?
Instructions			SSE2	Yes
			SSE3	Yes
			SSE4	N/a	Yes
			AVX	N/a			Yes
			AVX2	N/a				Yes
			FMA	N/a				Yes
			AVX512	N/a						Yes/No	Yes		Yes/No
μArchitecture				Merom	Penryn	Nehalem	Sandy Bridge	Haswell	Broadwell	Skylake	Ice Lake	Tiger Lake	Alder Lake	Raptor Lake

↑ Rocket Lake based on Cypress Cove is a CPU microarchitecture, a variant of Sunny Cove microarchitecture designed for 10 nm, backported to 14 nm.
↑ 1.25 MB in client
↑ 56 unified in Ivy Bridge

Overview of Intel Core microarchitectures
Brand	Desktop				Mobile
Brand	Codename	Cores	Process	Date released	Codename	Cores	Process	Date released
Core Solo	Desktop version not available				Yonah	1	65 nm	January 2006
Core Duo					Yonah	2	65 nm	January 2006
Core 2 Solo					Merom-L Penryn-L	1 1	65 nm 45 nm	September 2007 May 2008
Core 2 Duo	Conroe Allendale Wolfdale	2 2 2	65 nm 65 nm 45 nm	August 2006 January 2007 January 2008	Merom Penryn	2 2	65 nm 45 nm	July 2006 January 2008
Core 2 Quad	Kentsfield Yorkfield	4 4	65 nm 45 nm	January 2007 March 2008	Penryn QC	4	45 nm	August 2008
Core 2 Extreme	Conroe XE Kentsfield XE Yorkfield XE	2 4 4	65 nm 65 nm 45 nm	July 2006 November 2006 November 2007	Merom XE Penryn XE Penryn QC XE	2 2 4	65 nm 45 nm 45 nm	July 2007 January 2008 August 2008
Core M	Desktop version not available				Broadwell	2	14 nm	September 2014^[19]
Core m3					Skylake Kaby Lake Kaby Lake Amber Lake	2 2 2 2	14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm	August 2015 September 2016 April 2017 August 2018
Core m5					Skylake	2	14 nm	August 2015
Core m7					Skylake	2	14 nm	August 2015
Core i3	Clarkdale Sandy Bridge Ivy Bridge Haswell Skylake Kaby Lake Coffee Lake Coffee Lake Comet Lake Alder Lake Raptor Lake	2 2 2 2 2 2 4 4 4 4 4	32 nm 32 nm 22 nm 22 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm Intel 7 Intel 7	January 2010 February 2011 September 2012 September 2013 September 2015 January 2017 October 2017 Jan. & April 2019 April 2020 January 2022 Jan. 2023 & 2024	Arrandale Sandy Bridge Ivy Bridge Haswell Broadwell Skylake Kaby Lake Skylake Kaby Lake Coffee Lake Cannon Lake Coffee Lake Whiskey Lake Ice Lake Comet Lake Tiger Lake / B Alder Lake Raptor Lake Meteor Lake	2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 2 2 2 2-4 6-8 5-6 8	32 nm 32 nm 22 nm 22 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 10 nm 14 nm 14 nm 10 nm 14 nm 10 nm Intel 7 Intel 7 Intel 4	January 2010 February 2011 June 2012 June 2013 January 2015 Sept. 2015 & June 2016 August 2016 November 2016 Jan. & June 2017 April 2018 May 2018 July 2018 August 2018 May & Aug. 2019 September 2019 Sept. 2020, Jan. - May 2021 January 2022 Jan. 2023 & 2024 April 2024
Core i5	Lynnfield Clarkdale Sandy Bridge Sandy Bridge Ivy Bridge Haswell Broadwell Skylake Kaby Lake Coffee Lake Coffee Lake Comet Lake Rocket Lake Alder Lake Raptor Lake	4 2 4 2 2-4 2-4 4 4 4 6 6 6 6 6-10 10-14	45 nm 32 nm 32 nm 32 nm 22 nm 22 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm Intel 7 Intel 7	September 2009 January 2010 January 2011 February 2011 April 2012 June 2013 June 2015 September 2015 January 2017 October 2017 Oct. 2018 & Jan. 2019 April 2020 March 2021 Nov. 2021 & Jan. 2022 Jan. 2023/2024 & Oct. 2023/2024	Arrandale Sandy Bridge Ivy Bridge Haswell Broadwell Skylake Kaby Lake Kaby Lake Kaby Lake-R Coffee Lake Amber Lake Whiskey Lake Ice Lake Comet Lake Comet Lake-H Tiger Lake Tiger Lake-H/B Alder Lake Alder Lake-H/HX Raptor Lake Meteor Lake	2 2 2 2 2 2 2 4 4 4 2 4 4 4 4 4 4-6 10-12 8-12 6-12 8-14	32 nm 32 nm 22 nm 22 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 10 nm 14 nm 14 nm 10 nm 10 nm Intel 7 Intel 7 Intel 7 Intel 4	January 2010 February 2011 May 2012 June 2013 January 2015 September 2015 August 2016 January 2017 October 2017 April 2018 Aug. 2018 & Oct. 2018 Aug. 2018 & April 2019 May & Aug. 2019 September 2019 April 2020 Sept. 2020 – May 2021 January – September 2021 January 2022 January & May 2022 Jan. 2023 & 2024 Dec. 2023 & Apr. 2024
Core i7	Bloomfield Lynnfield Gulftown Sandy Bridge Sandy Bridge-E Sandy Bridge-E Ivy Bridge Haswell Ivy Bridge-E Broadwell Skylake Kaby Lake Coffee Lake Coffee Lake Comet Lake Rocket Lake Alder Lake Raptor Lake	4 4 6 4 6 4 4 4 4-6 4 4 4 6 8 8 8 12 16-20	45 nm 45 nm 32 nm 32 nm 32 nm 32 nm 22 nm 22 nm 22 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm Intel 7 Intel 7	November 2008 September 2009 July 2010 January 2011 November 2011 February 2012 April 2012 June 2013 September 2013 June 2015 August 2015 January 2017 October 2017 October 2018 April 2020 March 2021 Nov. 2021 & Jan. 2022 Jan. 2023/2024 & Oct. 2023/2024	Clarksfield Arrandale Sandy Bridge Sandy Bridge Ivy Bridge Haswell Broadwell Broadwell Skylake Kaby Lake Kaby Lake Coffee Lake Amber Lake Whiskey Lake Ice Lake Comet Lake Comet Lake-H Tiger Lake Tiger Lake-H/B Alder Lake Alder Lake-H/HX Raptor Lake Meteor Lake	4 2 4 2 2-4 2-4 2 4 2-4 2 4 4-6 2 4 4 4-6 6-8 4 4-8 10-14 10-16 14-20 12-16	45 nm 32 nm 32 nm 32 nm 22 nm 22 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 10 nm 14 nm 14 nm 10 nm 10 nm Intel 7 Intel 7 Intel 7 Intel 4	September 2009 January 2010 January 2011 February 2011 May 2012 June 2013 January 2015 June 2015 September 2015 August 2016 January 2017 April 2018 August 2018 Aug. 2018 & April 2019 May & Aug. 2019 September 2019 April 2020 September 2020 January – September 2021 January 2022 January & May 2022 January 2023 & 2024 Dec. 2023 & Apr. 2024
Core i7 Extreme	Bloomfield Gulftown Sandy Bridge-E Ivy Bridge-E Haswell-E Broadwell-E Skylake-X Kaby Lake-X	4 6 6 6 8 10 6-8 4	45 nm 32 nm 32 nm 22 nm 22 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm	November 2008 March 2010 November 2011 September 2013 August 2014 May 2016 June 2017 June 2017	Clarksfield Sandy Bridge Ivy Bridge Haswell	4 4 4 4	45 nm 32 nm 22 nm 22 nm	September 2009 January 2011 May 2012 June 2013
Core i9	Skylake-X Skylake-X Cascade Lake-X Coffee Lake Comet Lake Rocket Lake Alder Lake Raptor Lake	10 12 14-18 8 10 8 16 24	14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm 14 nm Intel 7 Intel 7	June 2017 August 2017 September 2017 October 2018 April 2020 March 2021 Nov. 2021 & Jan. 2022 Oct. 2022 / Jan.&Oct. 2023	Coffee Lake-H Comet Lake-H Tiger Lake-H Alder Lake-H/HX Raptor Lake-H/HX Meteor Lake-H	6 8 8 14-16 14-24 16	14 nm 14 nm 10 nm Intel 7 Intel 7 Intel 4	April 2018 April 2020 May 2021 January & May 2022 January 2023 & 2024 December 2023
List of Intel Core processors