What is i3 , i5 and i7 ? Why there is no i4 , i6 processors?

what does i3 , i5 and i7 represents?

Most of the buyers think that the core i3 , i5 , i7 represents its no of cores presents on the processor. But actual speaking it’s not true in any sense as the no of cores on the processor is generally in even numbers such as dual core , quadra core , hexa core and so on upto 16 to 18 cores (in some special cases the cores may be in odd numbers , but it’s rare)

why is it so ?

Most of you may be have a question that why most of the processor have dual , quadra and hexa core (only even no of cores) and not tri and penta core ? and the answer of the your questions can be explained by following image .

Dual Core processor

as the above fig shows dual core processor the architectural design of the processors are generally in parallel slots of two and not in the series slots for efficient and fast working .Today The biggest challenge for computers and mobiles manufacturers are the management of space and make the device more slimmer and small with maximum efficiency and working capability . So the real reason to have even numbers of cores can be found in this reason. As architectural design of processors allow placing it in the parallel slots of two , the space required for the 3 cores (if manufactured) and 4 cores will be same but there will be the different working capability as simple 4 cores will work faster than 3 cores so that most of the processor companies manufactures the even number of cores on their processors .but in some special cases odd number of cores are manufactured and remaining 1 slot of the core is being dedicated to other hardware like RAM ROM or GPU.

So what does i3 , i5 And i7 really means ?

If you want a plain and simple answer, then generally speaking , Core i7s are better than Core i5s, which are in turn better than Core i3s. Core i7 does not have seven cores nor does Core i3 have three cores. The numbers are simply indicative of their relative processing powers.

The more cores there are, the more tasks (known as threads) can be served at the same time. The lowest number of cores can be found in Core i3 CPUs, i.e., which have only two cores. Currently, all Core i3s are dual-core processors.

Currently all Core i5 processors, except for the i5-4570T, are quad cores. The Core i5-4570T is only a dual-core processor with a standard clock speed of 2.9GHz. Remember that all Core i3s are also dual cores. the latest i7 processors do have 4 to 8 cores according to the generation and model. The i9 processors of Intel is in the market with 4 to 12 cores with highest power among all of the intel processors.

i3 processors – only dual core with hyperthreading

i5 processors – mostly dual cores in laptop version and quadra core in PC version

i7 processors – quadra to octa cores

i9 procesors – quadra to 12 cores

What does the generation of processor represents?

The Intel corporation launch it’s advance processor series in January 2010 naming it as i3 processor with transistor(small working chips inside the processor) size of 32 Nm. Further Intel made advancment in that i3 series reducing the transistor size to 24 Nm, 22 Nm ,14 Nm and upto 10Nm (smaller the transistor size more the efficiency and working power). To represent this advancement in the processors Intel represented it as generations . so Higher the generations number more the efficiency and working power. So if you have to choose the better laptop go for the higher generation.

Why there is no i4 , i6 And i8 processors ?

As article told early that the number behind the i dosen’t represents the number of cores of the processor . So If Intel would given the processor names as i4 , i6 and i8 people might get confused with the number 4 .6 and 8 with the number of cores of that processor(i.e i3 dosen’t means it has 3 cores actually it has 2 cores) . To avoid that confusion Intel corporation dicided to have the name of the processors following only with odd numbers.