Intel confirms the existence of 10nm Cannon Lake i3-8121U CPU

When confronted with their 10nm manufacturing problems, Intel’s defence has been that they are shipped 10nm silicon in low quantities, with the problem being that 10nm currently does not offer high enough manufacturing yields to create a full range of desktop processors cost-effectively with at desired qualities.    

Yesterday we talked about Lenovo’s Ideapad 330, which now ships in China with a new processor called the i3 8121U, Intel’s first Cannon Lake and 10nm product. 

You may be wondering why Intel has not made much of a fuss about this launch, as new product architectures and process node advancements often come surrounded by hype and fanfare. In this case, it is obvious why Intel wants to brush the i3 8121U under the carpet; it is a low-TDP dual-core product that lacks an iGPU component, offering users unimpressive clock speeds that start at a base of 2.2GHz and boost up to 3.2GHz.     

The full specifications of Intel’s new i3 8121U processor are now available on Intel Ark, the company’s product database, marked with no “Recommended Customer Price”, which likely means that these processors are shipping at an incredibly low price. Remember that OEMs have to combine this product with a dedicated graphics chip, making the product unusable as a standalone CPU without the help of Radeon or Geforce graphics.   
 

 

Compare the i3 8121U to Intel’s 8th Generation Kaby Lake Mobile i3-8130U and the shortcomings of this 10nm product are clear, with the i3-8130U offering base/boost clock speeds of 2.2GHz and 3.4GHz, the same TDP of 15W (configurable to 10W) and an integrated graphics component. Intel’s Cannon Lake i3 8121U falls short of Intel’s 14nm offering, assuming that Cannon Lake doesn’t offer a transformative difference in performance per clock. 

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