Lakefield was supposed to be a firecracker, but the hood came out. No wonder Apple is running away from Intel

Systems from the Lakefield family were to be an effective line of defense against the threat from ARM licensees. Unfortunately (for Intel) you can sleep peacefully. Tests show that Lakefield processors are not market firecrackers but hoods.

There are exceptions to this generalization, but in fact the strongest side of Intel x86 architecture systems is their raw performance. On the other hand, those with ARM architecture are sensational efficiency (performance to energy ratio). The problem is that for some time most consumers will have enough computing power of integrated circuits, which are installed in inexpensive phones. The appetite for x86 performance has decreased, and the demand for ultra-mobile devices that are always ready for use has increased.

Fortunately for Intel, changing the processor architecture on a computer is not a simple matter. Programs written for x86 will not work on ARM and vice versa. The threat from ARM licensees is very real to Intel, but the giant still has time to react. If only to be able to develop systems such as Lakefield, which in theory would ridicule Qualcomm and Apple ARM processors.

Lakefield processors , i.e. the Intel version of the big.LITTLE design.

One of the most interesting ideas in ARM processors is the use of different cores in them, which within one integrated circuit have different parameters. The so-called small cores consume very little energy, but they also do not offer high performance. They are used for less demanding tasks and for background processes. If necessary, large cores are activated, consuming significantly more energy, but also providing demanding applications and games with adequate power increase.

This design clearly has a positive effect on energy consumption. Most of the time, an electronic device does not have to operate at high speed. Intel finally decided to copy the competitor's idea after many years. Lakefield uses a Core core for high-performance calculations and Atom Tremont cores for energy-efficient ones .

The warm words about Intel Lakefield basically say that the processor is working.

Notebookcheck.com was the first in the world to acquire a Lakefield computer and test it . It turned out bad, if not compromising. The integrated circuit does not even reach the 3 GHz clock speed, which appears in the specification as maximum. The processor is 67 percent. slower than those of the Amber Lake family, although Intel promised a 12% increase in performance in single-threaded calculations.

Energy efficiency tests have not yet been carried out, so it cannot be ruled out that the Lakefield system has an advantage here. The editors note that the system does not emit much heat and is stable.

However, this does not change the fact that the tested Galaxy Book S with Lakefield in the performance test scored less points than the Lenovo V340 with the Pentium 5405U processor or Chuwiego AeroBook with the Core m3-8100Y. In many respects, these results are worse than the Snapdragon 8cx processors with ARM architecture. If this is the answer to the threat from ARM's partners, then Intel has nothing to fear .

Lakefield was supposed to be a firecracker, but the hood came out. No wonder Apple is running away from Intel