When you want to check the technical specs of an AMD processor, you have to search for it on the manufacturer’s website and you will see some rather superfluous specs of the specific processor, in which its specs tell you but if you want to take it a step further. , you should “seek your life”. This does not happen with Intel, and all the information of all of its processors is captured in a simple and structured way for quick access to all of its data, and can even compare the specifications of its processors. We will see him.
Intel Ark, how to access it and what is it for?
Intel Ark is a kind of open online database that you can access by simply logging into its website, without even having to register. Here, Intel makes comprehensive information on all of its products available to all users, including processors, server products, Intel NUCs, wireless technology, Ethernet products, FPGAs, memory and storage. , chipsets and graphics. In this article, we’ll be focusing on the brand’s processors, but it doesn’t hurt that you know that you can access the full specs for any of these products.
As we have already explained before, Intel Ark is a database that will show us in a clear and structured way all the technical specifications of the brand’s processors, including practically all the technical data that we would otherwise have to search manually in the white papers. some products. This way, when you want to search for a specific data of your processor, you will only have to enter its name in the search engine and you will have it two clicks away.
When you enter the Intel Ark webpage, the first thing you will see is a window like the one shown in the screenshot above, where you can click on any of the sections and the menu will change to be able to select different categories; for example, by clicking on Processors, we can choose between Intel Core, Pentium, Celeron, Xeon, Xeon Phi, Itanium, Atom and Quark processors.
If we click on one of them again, the menu will change again to show us the different categories available, and following the example, this is what we would see by clicking on Intel Core processors, where we can see all the generations up to the 5th, and the Previous are grouped together in “Previous”.
The moment we click on one of these options, it will bring us to the full list of processors that make up the selected generation and category, appearing in the form of a table (with which we can “play” to order, for example, by frequency). If we click on one of the processors, it will bring us to the full technical specifications, which we will talk about next.
This filtering by categories and generations of Intel processors is very good and shows us in a clear and concise way the members of each subgroup, but when you just want to search for the specs of a specific processor and you don’t want to get dizzy between menus, the easiest way is to write the name of the processor in the “Search for specs” box that we always have in the upper right corner of the screen.
You can click on any model, both by searching for it as we have indicated in the menus and in the search engine, and thus access the full technical characteristics. We are also offered the possibility to compare the specifications of several processors, and for this you can simply select more than one in the tables under the Compare column, or within each processor you can click in the upper right corner on “Add to Compare “to do so. . In addition, in the table that will appear comparing processors, their differences will be highlighted with a light blue background, which can be of great help.
Understand the specifications of Intel processors
When you access the technical specifications of any processor, a list with ALL of its characteristics will be displayed, which means that we will have a long list of parameters. We’ll see all of its sections broken down to understand what they all mean.
We start with the “Basics” section, which summarizes the characteristics of the processor. We took as an example an Intel Core i9-11900K.
- Set of products: indicates the generation and category of the selected processor.
- Code name: the generation code name, not the processor itself.
- Vertical segment: It tells us if the processor is for desktop, laptop, etc.
- Processor number: here the exact model is indicated.
- State: tells us if the processor is in production or has already been recalled.
- Release date: It doesn’t tell us the exact date, but the quarter and year of the launch. Q1’21 means it was launched in the first quarter of 2021.
- Lithography: here we find the manufacturing lithography, in nanometers.
- Terms of use: It is something similar to the vertical segment, but it is extended if the processor can be used in other segments.
- Recommended price for customers: is Intel’s MSRP.
Under the Essential section we find a summary of the processor specs, where we can see some pretty clear data such as number of cores, process threads, base speed, turbo and Velocity Boost, cache, bus speed, Turbo Boost frequencies, TDP processor, etc. In Additional Information, it is indicated whether the processor supports integrated options, that is, integrated systems.
Under processor specifications we have memory and graphics specifications. Here it tells us the native memory compatibility of the processor, and it tells us the technical specifications of the iGPU if it has it (obviously in processors that do not have integrated graphics, in this section we will only see ‘a line indicating that it does NOT do integrated graphics).
After that we have expansion options, where the configuration and compatibility with PCI-Express and scalability are indicated, a parameter that indicates whether the processor is compatible with dual socket motherboards. Further down in the package specs, we have socket and temperature support, including support for Thermal Velocity Boost in case the processor supports it.
We almost reach the end with a list of technologies compatible with the processor, no more, no less.
Finally, we have the security and reliability section in which Intel specifies the security options with which the processor is compatible. Pay attention to the icons with the question mark next to each name, because if you click on them, a window will appear with a description of said technology or feature.
