Intel Tiger Lake-U gets a refresh with higher clockspeeds

Intel is preparing some more chips for the laptop market. AnandTech received confirmation from Intel about a refresh of the 10nm Tiger Lake-U laptop processor series.

These chips have a 15W to 28W TDP and were launched in September 2020. They're manufactured using Intel's 10nm SuperFin process and use up to four Willow Cove processor cores in combination with Xe-LP integrated graphics.

Later this quarter, Intel will introduce a 45W+ TDP Tiger Lake-H series for higher-performance laptops. What is new information is that the chip giant is working on a Tiger Lake-R too. This is a refresh of the Tiger Lake-U. AnandTech expects Tiger Lake-R chips may finally support LPDDR5. LPDDR5-5400 support was part of the specification sheet of Tiger Lake-U, but so far there hasn't been a single design that uses LPDDR5. Furthermore, you can expect some minor clockspeed improvements.

Technically Intel stated that Tiger Lake-U also supported LPDDR5-5400 when the product was launched, however we have not seen a Tiger Lake-U design with this feature. A Tiger Lake-Refresh might have this key feature enabled with a new family of processors, alongside minor frequency increases as Intel is able to optimize its 10nm SuperFin manufacturing process.

The Tiger Lake Refresh applies exclusively to parts with a TDP in the 15W to 28W range. The refresh hints that Alder Lake, which is scheduled for a 2021 launch, likely won't hit the market until late Q4 2021.