Intel Jasper Lake N-Series launched with 6W Celeron and 10W Pentium Silver processors

Intel has finally announced the Gemini Lake processor family successor at CES 2021 together with other processors. The Jasper Lake family currently comes with six different Celeron and Pentium Silver parts with respectively 6W and 10 TDP.

The company positions those for the education market, but I’d expect them to also be found in various mini PCs, single board computers, and systems-on-module. The processors are manufactured with the company’s 10nm process, and are said to deliver up to 35% better overall application performance and up to 78% better graphics performance compared to  Gemini Lake Refresh processors.

The new parts listed on Ark are not really new for CNX Software readers as we published the list of Jasper Lake processors in September following a leak.

But we know have more details, so let’s compare the top parts of both Gemini Lake Refresh (Pentium Silver J5040) and Jasper Lake (Pentium Silver N6005) both 10W processors.

One of the main differences is the new 10nm process, as Gemini Lake was based on a 14nm process. The number of cores and frequency are pretty much identical, except for a slightly higher burst frequency. It should be noted that while Gemini Lake processors relies on Goldmont Plus microarchitecture, Jasper Lake makes use of the new Tremont microarchitecture.

In theory, Jasper Lake processors will support larger capacity memory, but as we’ve seen in the past Gemini Lake based systems can handle up to 32GB RAM in dual-socket configuration (2x 16GB). One example is ODROID-H2+ SBC, so I suspect we may eventually find out Jasper Lake platforms could support up to 64GB. We just don’t know at this stage.

The large boost in graphics performance announced by Intel is not surprising when we look at the specs, as the Intel UHD Graphics comes with 32 execution units both the base and burst frequencies are higher. It also looks like Jasper Lake will support 4Kp60 HDMI output natively, so a separate chip may not be needed anymore.

The Intel Pentium Silver N6005 processor will also offer more expansion and I/O with up to 8 PCI Express Gen3 lanes, and 14 USB 2.0/3.2 interfaces.

All those extra ports mean the processor will still be bigger at 35x 24mm despite the new 10nm process. Both Jasper Lake and Gemini Lake comes with the same “advanced technology” except for Intel Speed Shift. The feature enables the processor to directly control Turbo boost instead of relying on the OS according to an article on AnandTech. This allows the processor to reach the Turbo frequency faster and makes the system feel more responsive to the user.

I could not find announcements of Jasper Lake products right now, but considering Ark marks the processor as “Launched” as opposed to “Announced” it should not take too long.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

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