The only Cannon Lake CPU to come out, however, is the i3-8121U, a model with two cores that went out of production, with the Santa Clara company later ending support for the architecture. The new photo shared by the insider reveals a detail, namely the purpose of the third chiplet, which until now had remained a mystery. Specifically, this would function as the processor's Integrated Voltage Regulator (IVR), an element introduced with the fourth generation Haswell models released in 2013.
Source: SkyJuice60
Despite the undeniable advantages of this solution, Intel has eliminated for a while 'of time the implementation of IVR on desktop platforms after the Broadwell CPUs, reintroducing it again in recent architectures. A decision that seems to have been motivated by possible thermal problems and constraints dictated by the size of the package. However, this newly emerged Cannon Lake CPU prototype is also unique due to the multi chiplet design, an approach designed to reduce the operating temperatures of the integrated components for the benefit of efficiency.
Despite this interesting design, it is not then actually arrived on the market, has been resumed for the design of future Meteor Lake processors that will make use of tiles manufactured through both Intel's 7nm node and TSMC's 3nm node, a choice that will reduce production costs and simplify the design.