Intel quietly expands Core M ‘Broadwell’ family of chips

Intel Corp. has quietly added new Core M “Broadwell” microprocessors into its lineup of chips. The new central processing units consume up to 4.5W of energy and are designed for high-performance tablets, hybrid 2-in-1 systems as well as ultra-thin notebooks. The new CPUs can operate at higher frequencies than their predecessors that have already been discontinued.

The new Core M 5Y71, 5Y51, 5Y31 and 5Y10C microprocessors belong to the Broadwell-Y (BDW-Y 2+2) breed of system-on-chips that feature microprocessor as well as core-logic set on the same piece of substrate. Just like the Core M chips released in the third quarter, the new Core M SoCs feature two x86 cores with the Hyper-Threading technology, the Intel HD Graphics 5300 core with 24 execution units and various enhancements, 4MB of L3 cache, dual-channel DDR3 memory controller as well as 4.5W thermal design power.

The new Core M chips feature improved graphics performance thanks to increased clock-rates and higher maximum Turbo Boost frequencies for x86 cores. They should provide higher performance than the first Core M system-on-chips currently used by select makers of tablets and hybrid systems.

It is logical to expect device manufacturers to quickly transit to newer Core M “Broadwell” processors since they feature higher performance amid similar thermal design power.

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KitGuru Says: While it is good that Intel can increase clock-rates of “Broadwell” processors slightly without boosting their TDPs, the increases are not truly significant. It will be interesting to see the clock-rates of Intel Core “Broadwell-U” SoCs that have 15W thermal design power and are due in early 2015.

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