Intel is preparing an analog to AMD's 3D V-Cache technology for its upcoming Core Ultra Series 4 "Nova Lake" desktop processors. Technical documentation leaks had previously referred to the feature as "b LLC," short for "big last-level cache," and it now appears Intel will use "BFC" as the brand extension for processor models featuring the enlarged cache.
The new chips will keep the Core Ultra naming scheme introduced with the current Core Ultra Series 2 "Arrow Lake" generation, but add four-digit model numbers that loosely resemble those of the 4th Gen Core "Haswell" series. Existing brand extensions carry their own meaning: "K" and "KF" denote an upwards unlocked base frequency multiplier, while "BFC" indicates the presence of b LLC. What BFC stands for remains unconfirmed, though speculation has centered on a phrase such as "big fusion cache."
The underlying idea mirrors AMD's approach. Enlarging the L3 cache can significantly improve gaming performance because it keeps more fast-moving game data, such as textures, closer to the processor than DRAM, with far lower latency. AMD stacks a slab of L3 cache on top of its CCD, over the on-die L3 cache, to create a contiguously addressable cache block. Intel may take a different route, placing a cache tile beside the Compute tile and extending the compute complex's ringbus to reach it.
Source: TechPowerUp News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing