Intel Core M series processors is an upcoming lineup that will use the Broadwell architecture and will debut for slim tablets. These processors are more powerful than their Atom siblings while being less powerful than the consumer Core i series. This leak details the three variants of Intel Core M.

Intel Broadwell Core M 5Y70, Core M 5Y10 and Core M 5Y10a Variants Detailed

Noe one of the most trickiest things of these processors is the TDP, but we will get to that later. Basically these processors are expected in the fourth quarter of 2014 and have yet to begin volume production. However since Intel has its own fab, you can be rest assured that it is of little consequence to the road map. The Y series currently consists of the three variants namely Core M 5Y70, Core M 5Y10 and Core M 5Y10a. Do note that Intel may decide to change the nomenclature of the said SKUs to something completely different, like Core M 70 instead of Core M 5Y70. These SKUs will be followed by 2 more SKUs in around Q1 2015.

Model Cores /

Threads Frequency /

Turbo L3

cache GPU

Frequency Memory TDP Core M 5Y10 2 / 2 800 MHz / 2 GHz 4 MB 100 / 800 MHz DDR3L/LPDDR3-1600 4.5W Core M 5Y10a 2 / 2 800 MHz / 2 GHz 4 MB 100 / 800 MHz DDR3L/LPDDR3-1600 4.5W Core M 5Y70 2 / 4 1.1 / 2.6 GHz 4 MB 100 / 850 MHz DDR3L/LPDDR3-1600 4.5W

Table courtesy of CPU-World.com

As you can probably see from the table, these processors support turbo boost technology and the boost clock mentioned will be applicable to both cores. These 2 + 2 processors support 4 MB of L3 cache and DDR3 1600Mhz Ram. The rated TDP is 4.5W and only the higher end Core M 5Y70 supports hyper threading and has 2 virtual threads. These processors will be produced in the BGA packaging and are expected to have major IPC and clock for clock gains over the Atom processors they will be replacing (clarification: new Atoms are still coming, think of this as a recently opened space for a new family of processors).

The really cool part about these processors is that normally they run at a super low frequency, think in Megahertz, but when the need arises the processors can more than double the clock for twice the processing power. Similarly the GPU is clocked at 100Mhz but can increase its clock to a lovely 800Mhz (850Mhz for one specific SKU). And here lies the tricky part about the TDP. The wattage mentioned is clearly labeled as TDP; However I would be willing to bet a clean pair of socks that this is actually SDP (Scenario Design Point), which is a semi-marketing, semi-technical term. Basically for the majority of the time the processors will operate at very low frequencies, consuming extremely low amounts of wattage. And Intel, needs to show that somehow. They need to show the investors that hey, 90% of the time this chip will consume ~4W and thus SDP was born. Ofcourse TDP is a completely technical term and in this case the TDP should be higher than 4.5W although probably still in single figures. These processors are shaping up to be a very nice venture from Intel and more on its plan to finally take the mobile industry seriously.