Understanding the name of Intel processors

Have you ever wondered what all these numbers mean to Intel processors? Do you look like idiots when they talk about generations and about i7 or i9? Let's see what all these symbols are and what they represent.

The processor (CPU) is a technologically complex  a computer. It is crucial and is essentially the brain of your pc. The market is dominated by two major CPU manufacturers, Intel and ADM. And even though there are only two companies, the speed of processors is growing rapidly. Before the inks dry out from the reports about a cpu that went on the market, the next model is immediately displayed.

All this rapid growth also brought a strange nomenclature. The need to distinguish the qualities and generations of cpu created difficult and strange names, consisting of letters and numbers. Today we will deal with what the numbers and letters of Intel CPUs mean.

Intel Core
The main model of Intel CPUs is the Core, supplemented with the symbols i3, i5, i7, i9 and more recently, the i10. In almost all cases, the higher the model number, the better the performance. So an Intel Core i5 CPU is better than an Intel Core i3 CPU, and so on.

Intel Core i3 series are entry-level processors. The i5s are mid-range but cover a very wide range of cores and speeds (some i5 CPUs also have hyperthreading), while the i7, i9 and i10 series are advanced cpu.

Today Intel's top model is the Core i10 and offers more cores, higher clock speeds, support for more memory and more.

Intel N3000-Series Pentium and Celeron
Intel Core is not the only processor model. Here are the other processors you will see in laptops, , , Chromebooks and so on.

Intel Pentium processors are one signal with small-scale processors, with significantly lower value. There is also the Celeron model. Intel Celeron processors focus on mobile devices, laptops and other laptops with low spec requirements.

Intel Pentium and Intel Celeron mobile processors also appear under the name "N3000". These CPUs use a different architecture, known as "Airmont", and have lower CPU and GPU performance. You can find them on cheap laptops, notebooks and Chromebooks. If you find an N3000 processor that combines fairly fast RAM and storage, it can work quite well. However, this does not happen often.

Intel Atom
Intel Atom processors provide an interesting range of hardware. Originally designed for ultra-slim laptops, Atom processors now power anything that requires extended battery life. You'll find Atom processors on laptops, Chromebooks and tablets, as well as built-in IoT systems and devices.

Intel Xeon
Finally, there is the Intel Xeon series of processors, which are commonly found on workstations and servers. Intel Xeon processors have a different nomenclature than Core processors, although they often use the same architecture.

Nomenclature of Intel Core
The latest Core processors have a common nomenclature. All other Intel processors use a different naming system. In this article we will focus on Core processors, which are basically home and probably on your own computer. All Intel Core processors use a naming system that works as follows:

Core [sub-model] + [processor number] + [patch]

The Intel Core i7-8650U processor, for example, has the i7 sub-model, the 8650 processor number and the U.

Ο processor number contains more information about processor performance. The first number from the processor number represents the processor generation (production), in this case, the 7th generation Intel Core processors. This moment The latest Intel Core processors are the 10th generation (so the processor number changes to 10xxx).

The last three numbers of the processor number, also known as the Stock-keeping unit (SKU), are used to tell you where Intel ranks the processor in terms of performance relative to its other models. The higher the better. In this case, the 9980 is a better Intel cpu than the .

What does it mean suffix or suffix or otherwise Suffixes; Intel nomenclature uses another important feature to distinguish between processors. The suffix at the end of many cpu names gives you a direct indication of what you can use for the processor.

Although Intel gives numbers to processors to match the line of its, not all products are easy to compare. A quad-core processor will obviously have an advantage over a dual-core model. But what about processors built for mobile systems or for IoT, which require an extremely low power? That's where the suffixes system comes in.

The ending of Intel processor names is uniform across all generations of processors. The following is a list of what Intel's suffixes mean.

K : indicates that the processor is unlocked, which means that the user could overclock it to extract more power.
U: U indicates an extremely low power CPU, often found on portable devices
H, HK, and HQ: These are for processors on mobile machines, indicating H (ign) = High performance in , H (igh) K = High graphics performance and unlock (for overclocking), and H (igh) Q = High graphics performance with a QUAD-core (quad core)
Β: A recently introduced letter (from the 8th generation of Intel mobile processors). B processors work similarly to their respective desktop processors, but are not designed to be socketed, ie they use a slightly different architecture.
HF: these mobile processors have high specifications, but also do not have a graphics processing unit
Y: Aimed at mobile units as the processor with the Y feature has extremely low consumption . Many “Y” models still have a high clock speed since they use the Max Turbo frequency setting
M: M is now only used for mobile models Intel Xeon, ultra-high-performance, such as the Xeon E-2286M

Understanding the meaning of the various suffixes of Intel processor names allows you to quickly understand the CPU specifications you are considering.

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Written by Dimitris

Dimitris hates on Mondays .....

2 Comments

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  1. Good evening, very nice article helped me a lot to understand the last 1-2 letters.
    I wanted to ask about some new letters I've seen in recent generations, KF and KS.
    Do you know what they mean??

    • If Intel has the letter K, it means that it can be overclocked and is unlocked. F means no iGPU or integrated graphics for the processor. KF series processors are cheaper than K processors and usually do not have iGPUs.

      Intel KS processors have better performing CPUs than other K series processors in the same class. For example, if a xxx00K CPU provides significantly better performance at higher base clock speeds than another xxx00K CPU it will get the KS designation. Basically, KS intel processors are higher performance versions of the regular K series.

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