Intel launches Gemini Lake Pentium Silver, Celeron parts

Intel has officially expanded its entry-level processor offerings by launching Gemini Lake-based Pentium Silver and Celeron models with four cores and peak speeds up to 2.8GHz.

Based on the metallic theme first introduced with the Xeon Processor Scalable family and taken mainstream with the Pentium Gold and Pentium Silver Kaby Lake processor ranges - rebrands, rather than new products - the new Pentium Silver is a true chip launch, featuring the company's Gemini Lake microarchitecture.

The Pentium Silver J5005 marks the first time the brand has been used for a quad-core quad-thread (4C4T) part, offering speeds of 1.5GHz base up to 2.8GHz peak, 4MB of cache, a dual-channel memory controller with support for DDR4 and Low Power DDR4 (LPDDR4) up to 2,400MHz, and Intel UHD Graphics 605 running at up to 800MHz dynamic frequency in a 10W thermal design profile (TDP). A mobile-centric variant, the Pentium Silver N5000, is also available, dropping the base frequency to 1.1GHz, the peak frequency down to 2.7GHz and the GPU clock to 750MHz while retaining the remainder of the specifications for a 6W TDP.

Alongside the Pentium Silver parts, Intel announced new Gemini Lake Celeron models: the Celeron J4105 4C4T with base 1.5GHz, peak 2.5GHz CPU and 750MHz UHD Graphics 600 GPU speed, the Celeron J4005 2C2T with base 2GHz, peak 2.7GHz CPU, and 700MHz GPU speed, the mobile-oriented Celeron N4100 4C4T with base 1.1GHz, peak 2.4GHz CPU and 700MHz GPU clocks, and the Celeron N4000 2C2T with base 1.1GHz, peak 2.6GHz CPU and 650MHz GPU clocks.

As Gemini Lake parts, each model comes with a range of new features including support for 802.11ac 2x2 MIMO Wi-Fi connectivity with 160MHz channel widths for a theoretical throughput of 1,733Mb/s and Local Adaptive Contrast Enhancement (LACE) for improved display clarity in high ambient lighting. According to Intel's internal testing using the SYSmark 2014 SE benchmark suite, the Pentium Silver J5005 offer a 58 percent improvement in productivity performance compared with the four-year-old Pentium N3540.

While the parts have yet to appear in the channel, Intel's Ark provides a $161 recommended customer price for the Pentium Silver J5005 and Pentium Silver N5000, $107 for the Celeron J4105, Celeron J4005, Celeron N4100, and Celeron N4000, all based on a 1,000-unit tray minimum order quantity (MOQ).