Comet Lake
Intel's 10th-gen Core family on 14 nm with up to ten cores.
Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA · CC BY 2.0
Comet Lake is Intel's 10th-generation Core-branded processor family, manufactured using Intel's third 14 nm Skylake process revision. It succeeds the Whiskey Lake U-series mobile processor and Coffee Lake desktop processor families, and together with Ice Lake 10 nm processors is branded as the Intel '10th Generation Core' family.
Quick Facts
- Produced-Start
- 2019-08-21 (official launch date, retail availability is later)
- Produced-End
- 2020-12-16 (desktop except for low-end) / 2022-09-30 (mobile)
- Code
- 80701
- Numcores
- 2–10
- Microarch
- Skylake
- Arch
- x86
- Instructions
- x86-64
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Comet Lake processors were announced across multiple segments in 2019 and 2020. Low-power mobile Comet Lake-U CPUs were introduced on August 21, 2019, followed by H-series mobile CPUs on April 2, 2020, desktop Comet Lake-S CPUs on April 30, 2020, and Xeon W-1200 series workstation CPUs on May 13, 2020. In March 2021, Intel launched Comet Lake-Refresh Core i3 and Pentium CPUs on the same day as the 11th Gen Core Rocket Lake launch. The low-power mobile Comet Lake-U Core and Celeron 5205U CPUs were discontinued on July 7, 2021.
All Comet Lake CPUs feature an updated Platform Controller Hub with CNVio2 controller supporting Wi-Fi 6 and external AX201 CRF module. Compared to Coffee Lake-S Refresh, Comet Lake-S offers up to ten CPU cores, hyperthreading on all models except Celeron, single-core turbo boost up to 5.3 GHz (300 MHz higher), all-core turbo boost up to 4.9 GHz, Thermal Velocity Boost for Core i9, Turbo Boost Max 3.0 support for Core i7 and i9, DDR4-2933 memory support for Core i7 and i9, and a 400-series chipset based on the LGA 1200 socket. One notable architectural change is the removal of TSX instruction set extensions. Entry-level CPUs like the i3 series no longer support ECC memory.
Comet Lake-H compared to Coffee Lake-H Refresh features higher turbo frequencies by up to 300 MHz, DDR4-2933 memory support, and Thermal Velocity Boost for Core i7 and i9. Comet Lake-U compared to Whiskey Lake-U offers up to six CPU cores, higher turbo frequencies by up to 300 MHz, and DDR4-2666 and LPDDR3-2133 memory support. Pentium and Celeron CPUs lack AVX and AVX2 support in desktop models, and mobile Pentium and Celeron CPUs lack AVX2 support. Comet Lake-W workstation CPUs support UDIMM ECC memory and require the W480 chipset.
Reader's Guide
Comet Lake represents Intel's continued reliance on the 14 nm process for its 10th-generation Core family, bridging the gap to the 10 nm Ice Lake processors. Its significance lies in delivering the highest core count (up to ten) and clock speeds (up to 5.3 GHz) on the mature 14 nm node, alongside platform updates such as the LGA 1200 socket and integrated Wi-Fi 6 support. The removal of TSX instruction set extensions marked a notable architectural change from predecessors. The family's legacy includes serving both desktop and mobile segments with a unified generation branding, while the March 2021 refresh extended the lifecycle of entry-level Core i3 and Pentium Gold processors. Comet Lake's discontinuation of low-power mobile CPUs in July 2021 signaled the transition to newer architectures, but its workstation variant (Comet Lake-W) continued to offer ECC memory support for professional use. The family's broad SKU range—from Celeron to Core i9—ensured its presence across consumer, enthusiast, and workstation markets.
Did You Know?
- Comet Lake-S desktop CPUs support up to ten cores and a single-core turbo boost of 5.3 GHz.
- Comet Lake removed TSX instruction set extensions from its architecture.
Gallery
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Comet Lake?
Comet Lake is Intel's 10th-generation Core processor family that covers low-power mobile, high-performance mobile, desktop, and workstation segments. It is grouped under the same '10th Generation Core' marketing umbrella as the 10 nm Ice Lake line, even though the two use entirely different fabrication nodes.
What process node is Comet Lake built on?
Despite carrying a new generation number, Comet Lake is fabricated on Intel's third revision of the 14 nm Skylake process rather than a brand-new node. In practice this made it a further die-shrink continuation of the architecture that started with Skylake, rather than a step up in transistor density.
What are Comet Lake's maximum core count and clock speeds?
The top-tier Comet Lake parts offer up to ten CPU cores. A single core can turbo to 5.3 GHz, while the all-core turbo ceiling sits at 4.9 GHz.
What did Comet Lake replace?
On the low-power mobile side it takes over from the Whiskey Lake U-series, and on the desktop side it follows the Coffee Lake family. Both predecessors were also 14 nm designs, so Comet Lake extended the same process node one more generation before Intel moved to 10 nm for mainstream parts.
When did Intel announce the various Comet Lake variants?
The low-power Comet Lake-U mobile chips were unveiled on August 21, 2019, and the high-performance H-series mobile parts followed on April 2, 2020. Desktop Comet Lake-S landed on April 30, 2020, with the Xeon W-1200 workstation line arriving on May 13, 2020.
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