Intel unveils Celeron and Pentium Silver CPUs based on Gemini Lake architecture

Low-end architecture will power low-end Celeron and Pentium CPUs

Intel has unveiled its new Gemini Lake, low-power architecture in the form of the Pentium Silver and Celeron CPUs.

Following on from processors based on last year's Apollo Lake architecture, the new Gemini Lake chips offer small hikes in processing and graphics performance with memory improvements and new video capabilities.

Not breaking any molds, both the Pentium Silver and new Celeron chips are effectively running on the base architecture that Intel uses for its old Atom chips - now being targeted at Internet of things devices. But the Pentium family also has an older 'Gold CPU' which runs on the higher-powered Kaby lake generation Core architecture.

The new Celeron CPUs are entry-level processors, with dual and quad core chips running at clock speeds of up to 2.7GHz, depending on whether a desktop or mobile chip is chosen. Support for DDR4 RAM is on offer as well as on-board graphic processing intended to offer high-definition video playback on low-powered laptops and desktops.

And it's pretty much the same story for the Pentium Silver, except that the chips come in just four core guises and offer slightly faster processor and graphics performance, with the desktop chip hitting 2.8GHz.

Intel claim that the architecture also supports Gigabit Wi-Fi and added that the chips are able to support 10 hours of video playback on battery.

That claim underscores the fact that they are aimed at low-end laptops and compact PCs that should have enough power to run everyday office tasks without costing a fortune.

As such, they are likely to appeal to consumers wanting a basic laptop that won't cost the Earth, and schools where laptops are rolled out to workers and students - low-powered yet capable laptops and desktops could appeal to cash-strapped organisations.

Intel's unveiling this week, though, was overshadowed by rumours of AMD's Ryzen 2 CPUs coming as early as February next year.