Intel Alder Lake-S: are the processors coming sooner than expected?

Now that the 11th generation of desktop CPUs, Rocket-Lake-S, is available, the next stage, Intel Alder-Lake-S, is already on the launch pad. Alder Lake-S is still planned for the end of this year, but the launch could well be delayed due to the current pandemic and the still prevailing chip shortage.

However, a leaked roadmap shows that Intel is probably planning to start production in August.

According to this, the production of the “8+8” cores should already start in calendar week 35 (August 30th to September 5th); the “6+0” cores should go into production from calendar week 41.

However, these are not the “Core” models but the “Entry Workstation” variants. The planned W680 chipset, which is clearly intended for workstations, also shows this. However, the roadmap also shows that Intel is planning a 16 core as their top model. The TDP is supposed to have a maximum of 125 watts for the K variant, and there are still 65 – 35W models below that. Furthermore, the LGA 1700 socket and 20 PCIe lanes are mentioned, as expected.

It is still unclear where the roadmap actually comes from and how true the overview really is. It could be a conference for distributors or partners, but there will probably only be clarity from Intel itself when official details are published.