
Now the company is ready to launch those chips, previously codenamed "Alder Lake," as its 12th-gen desktop processors.

Previously, all of Intel's CPU cores were pretty much the same, which led to the energy-hungry designs we've seen over the last few years. The idea behind them is intriguing: they feature both performance-cores (P-cores) and efficient-cores (E-cores) on a single die, giving you chips that can be beefy and a bit more power-conscious, depending on the task. We've been hearing about Intel's powerful hybrid chips for so long, they've achieved almost mythical status.
