WHAT’S THAT U,Z & K

Well guys we all went through this point entering a mall to buy a laptop or surfing the web for the same reason. But if the model numbers of the laptop that you are buying weren’t enough confusing there are the CPU’s increasing the havoc. With letters like U, K and really meaning less numbers like 6590, 7500 etc. It was dam confusing which product on the line has the best use in our case. Well though tricky the numbers reflected on the package do have a meaning that we need to understand for buying the best device/processor for our use case. So let’s begin also I wanted to bring this up today we are only going to brush up the INTEL CPUs.  

To begin with INTEL has 8 generations of processor line up and there are differentiated on the basis of clock speed, core count, ECC memory, high graphics option and over-clockablity. They too have server chips based on the XEON architecture.

INTEL 8^th Gen

The new kid on the block released this year the 8^th gen was a spear in the back of AMD the rival who was punching the face of INTEL with its low cost ZEN architecture. INTEL made a comeback with the chips is still a debatable conversation as by this time INTEL was shipping their chips with AMD VEGA graphics. So, it was a give-take scenario. Well let’s get back to the naming.

     

The processor are based on a complex scheme of number and alphabet as INTEL calls it as”alphanumeric”. They basically display the gen of the processor, a SKU number and a description of the relative function. The “U” here represents the ultra-low power version.

  For the desktop line up they have:-

1.       “K” as unlocked as in i7-8700K where 8700 is an SKU number.

  For the mobile division (i.e. for laptops)

1.       “G” as “includes discrete graphics on a package” as in i7-8705G.

2.       “U” as “ultra-low power” as in i7-8650U.

For the 7^th gen, the story is a little different as INTEL state that the “alphanumeric code” is based on generation and product line following the brand and its modifier.

For the desktop it has

1.       “K” as “unlocked” as i7-7700K.

2.       “T” as “power optimized lifestyle” as in i7-7700T.

For the mobile it offers

1.       “H” as “high-performance graphics” as in i3-7100H.

2.        “HK” as “high-performance graphics, unlocked” as in i7-7820HK.

3.       “HQ” as “high-performance graphics, quad-core” as in i7-7920HQ.

4.       “U” as “ultra low power” as in i7-7500U.

5.       “Y” as “extremely low power” as in i7-7Y57.

The 6^th gen has the same naming rules but there may few exceptions like in i7-7Y57 the “Y” was not placed in the end but in the middle for no reason well all we have to do is thanks to Intel for surprising us with how simple thing can be turned into a rocket science.

Well let’s move on

For the desktop line up, they have again

1.       “K” as “unlocked” as in i7-6700k & i5-6600K.

2.       “T” as “power-optimized lifestyle” as in i7-6700T,i5-6600T, i3-6300T.

      For the mobile version

1.       “H” as “high-performance graphics” as in i3-6100H.

2.       “HK” as in “high-performance graphics, unlocked” as in i7-6820HK.

3.       “HQ” as in “high-performance graphics, quad-core” as in i7-6920HQ.

4.       “U” as “Ultra low power” as in i7-6600U.

Now the terms are the same as the previous generations with the introduction of some new like

1.       ”M”  for “mobile” as in E3_1535Mv5 (it’s a Xeon processor).

2.       “C” for “ unlocked desktop processor based on the LGA 1150 package with high-performance graphics” as in “i7-5775C.

3.       “R” for “ desktop processor based on BGA1364(mobile) package with high-performance graphics.

4.       “S”  as “performance –optmized lifestyle” as in i7-4770S.

5.       “T” as “ power optimized lifestyle” as in i7-4770T.

6.       “QM” as “quad-core mobile” as in i7-4702MQ.

7.       “MX” as “ extreme mobile” as in i7-4940MX.

8.       “E” as “desktop energy efficient dual-core processor with TDP greater than or equal to 55W”.

9.       “L” as “mobile high energy efficient with TDP 12-19 W”.

10.    “P” as “ mobile highly efficient processor with TDP 20-29 W”.

11.   “Q” as “mobile quad-core high performance”.

12.    “QX” as “ desktop or mobile quad-core extreme performance “.

13.   “Z” as “mobile internet devices”.

Also, the number on the CELERON line up is given a three digit number or a 5 character alphabetical prefix and 4 digits which refers to cache, clock speed, front side bus etc. claiming that a higher number refers to more of the good stuff. Well, I think you still be confused as all things are not covered here but now at least you have the knowledge what the letter and numbers are all about.