Intel's next-gen Alder Lake-K could launch with Windows 11 in October

Intel is working on its 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPU family for later this year, ushering in next-gneeration technologies like DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 standards... right at the same time as Microsoft is hyping its next-gen Windows 11 operating system.

In the middle of these is Tom from Moore's Law is Dead, who has tweeted that Microsoft and Intel will be launching their new OS and CPUs "around a spooky time of the year" hinting at Halloween... which is October 31. The two companies are working closely together as they always do, with optimizations for Alder Lake built into the next-gen Windows 11.

Windows 11 will have huge scheduling upgrades, as well as many more tricks under its revised hood, that will be perfect for Intel's new Alder Lake CPUs. Intel's 12th Gen CPUs see the company moving into a new hybrid design, which will have two different architectures on the same package.

Tom says that the new version of Windows comes with "massive scheduling upgrades, and it seems to be coming out around Alder Lake K's launch", adding that it's "not a coincidence people..." and that "yes - Microsoft will unveil "Windows 11" (Or whatever they call it) June 24th. It's a new Windows".

Don't expect upgrades overnight with the scheduling improvements inside of Windows 11, as it will be a few months before software is tuned to take advantage of the new scheduling powers. Intel's next-gen 12th Gen Core CPUs will have up to a 20% single-threaded performance jump, and a huge 2X leap in multi-threaded tasks.

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Intel's new Alder Lake processors will also be the first that Intel will be making on its new and improved 10nm Enhanced SuperFin process node. Tiger Lake CPUs are made on the Intel 10nm SuperFin node right now, but the new 10nm Enhanced SuperFin process node + new hybrid architecture + DDR5 + PCIe 5.0 + Windows 11 + 100% upgrade in multi-threaded performance = oh boy, oh boy, oh boyyy.

• Read more: Intel 12th Gen Core 'Alder Lake-S' launch in November: PCIe 5.0 + DDR5
• Read more: Intel Core-1800 CPU details: Alder Lake-S with 16C/24T @ up to 4.6GHz
• Read more: ASUS Z690 + ROG Maximus XIV mobos teased for Intel Alder Lake CPUs

The new Alder Lake die is rectangular in size, so that means that the LGA 1700 socket will be very different to previous-gen LGA sockets including the recent Rocket Lake-S range of CPUs with the flagship Core i9-11900K processor.

This means that you will need a new CPU cooler for your new Alder Lake-S processor, but it is a move that Intel is doing to better align itself with AMD and its platform-agnostic socket movement. This can change, but for the time being the new rumors suggest Intel is moving in this direction.

• Read more: Intel's 13th Gen Core CPU teased: Raptor Lake-S comes in 2022+
• Read more: Intel teases 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs on 10nm SuperFin for 2H 2021
• Read more: Intel's new Xe-HPG GPU spotted next to next-gen Alder Lake-S CPU
• Read more: AMD will support DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 in 2022, but Intel has DDR5 first

We are to expect a max core configuration of 16 cores and 24 threads, split across 8 cores and 16 threads based on Golden Cove while the remaining 8 cores and 8 threads would be based on Gracemont.

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• eDP / 4DDI (DP, HDMI) Display Capabilities
• 2-Channel (Up To DDR5-4800 / Up To DDR4-3200) Memory Support
• x16 PCIe 5.0 / x4 PCIe 4.0 Lanes (CPU)
• PCIe Express 4.0 & PCIe Express 3.0 Support (600-Series Chipset)
• SATA 3.0
• Integrated Wi-Fi 6E
• Discrete Thunderbolt 4 (USB 4 Compliant)
• USB3 (20G) / USB3 (10G) / USB3 (5G) / USB 2.0
• Intel LAN PHY
• Intel Optane Memory H20 (H10 Successor)