After several leaks, the Intel Core Series 3 “Wildcat Lake” entry-level processor family is now official. Intel describes it as the first “hybrid AI-ready Core Series processor”. As expected, the “Computer & CPU tile” comes with up to six cores (2x P cores + 4x LPE cores), up to 2-core Intel Xe 3 graphics, a built-in NPU delivering up to 40 TOPS, and LPDDR5x/DDR5 memory interfaces.
The “Platform controller tile” integrates six PCIe Gen4 lanes, two Thunderbolt 4 interfaces, two USB 3.2 and eight USB 2.0 interfaces, as well as WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity. The Computer & GPU tile is manufactured using an Intel 18A process, while the Platform controller tile is manufactured with another “External” process (TSMC?).
Single-channel memory is confirmed, and it looks like eMMC flash will be replaced with UFS 3.0 memory for edge systems with soldered-on memory, although many systems will make use of PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD instead. Some readers complained about the low number of PCIe lanes, but Intel says it’s for your good:
Intentionally designed PCIe to give the right amount of support, targeting to no unused PCIe lanes
I suppose it might make sense for laptops and edge computers the company has in mind… But it won’t be ideal for devices with multiple storage and networking options.
