Intel kicked off a frenetic inaugural Innovation 2021 forum on Wednesday by unveiling a 12th Gen Intel Core processor family, including six new unlocked desktop processors.
The processor family includes a gaming processor, the core i9-12900K; Intel called it the “world’s best” with performance increases of up to 28% more frames per second on various popular games. Dell also unveiled a new Alienware Aurora R13 gaming desktop running the 12th Gen chip that was co-engineered with Intel to provide faster performance.
Part of the intent was to show Intel is competitive with competitors AMD in gaming and PCs and with Nvidia in AI, graphics and high performance computing. The timing was interesting, coming nearly a week after Intel announced third quarter earnings showing a decline in PC chips that some analysts blamed for a sudden 12% decline in Intel share price.
CEO Pat Gelsinger reached out to the global developer audience with an apology at the start of the two-day virtual event which featured a series of experts speaking on various subjects.
“From silicon to superpowers, the geek is back at Intel,” Gelsinger said, speaking from a large, mostly-empty stage set where tech demonstrations and quick interviews were conducted at makeshift workspaces.
“It’s all about you, the developers of software and hardware,” Gelsinger said. “We haven’t done a great job and need to stay in touch. We’re recommitting to delivera complete portfolio. Intel’s commitment to you is a developer-first approach.” He later promised, “no marketing fluff, just geeky goodness” during the event and concluded developers are “the true heroes of the digitized world.”
The 12th Gen Intel Core desktop processors are available now for pre-order from participating OEMs and retailers with broad availability starting Nov. 4. More than 140 desktop makers are expected to add the new processors to their lineups by the end of the year priced at $264 to $589. Intel also said it will ship hundreds of thousands of 12th Gen Intel Core desktop K processors by end of year and more than 2 million by end of March 2022. The entire 12th Gen Intel Core family will include 60 processors to power 500 PC designs.
Gelsinger used the keynote to briefly interview Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, now 92, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 4004 chip, the first general purpose microprocessor. Gelsinger described its arrival in November of 1971 as “a sacred moment for computing.” The 8008 chip appeared a year later.
More recent innovations with packaging and extreme ultraviolet lithography mean that Intel is “entering a period of sustained or super Moore’s Law,” Gelsinger claimed. “We will not rest until the periodic table is exhausted. We are relentless to innovate in the magic of silicon. Moore’s Law is alive and very well.” It is possible to “maintain or go faster than Moore’s Law for the next decade,” he added.
Moore observed in 1965 that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years while the cost of computers is cut in half. That observation became known as Moore’s Law.
The keynote concluded with recent highlights on AI successes, including a brief video of the FedEx mobile delivery robot Roxo that runs Intel chips. Amid a backdrop of societal worries about future AI gone awry, Gelsinger made a modest plea for “governance that guides this journey; technology must demonstrate its outcomes are secure to humans.”
He touted the Intel Mobileye Responsibility-Sensitive Safety model that sets a legal and formal framework for how autonomous vehicles should behave in the future, urging the RSS approach should be applied to other technologies beyond AVs.
“It’s no longer if something can be done, but why are we doing this,” he added.
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