Intel Core with Radeon RX Vega M Graphics Launched: HP, Dell, and Intel NUC
by Ian Cutress on January 7, 2018 9:02 PM EST8th Gen Gets More Complex: Confirmed Kaby Lake
The title of this page is a retrospect as to how Intel has literally thrown away the naming scheme that has driven its core product base for the last few years, confusing everyone (including high profile partners). The previous naming scheme was for the most part unambiguous – each processor ‘generation’ was one specific Core family or Core microarchitecture design. For an enthusiast, the 6th Generation Core family was based around Skylake, or 4th Generation Core family was Haswell. Not anymore.
When it was announced back at Intel's Manufacturing Day that Intel was going to be fluid on product line architecture and naming, it would appear that we (the technology press, the enthusiast community) severely under-estimated how fluid it would be. This is currently how history will see the 8th Generation:
| Intel's Core Architecture Cadence (1/7) | |||||
| Core Generation | Microarchitecture | Process Node | Release Year | ||
| 2nd | Sandy Bridge | 32nm | 2011 | ||
| 3rd | Ivy Bridge | 22nm | 2012 | ||
| 4th | Haswell | 22nm | 2013 | ||
| 5th | Broadwell | 14nm | 2014 | ||
| 6th | Skylake | 14nm | 2015 | ||
| 7th | Kaby Lake | 14nm+ | 2016 | ||
| 8th | Kaby Lake-R Coffee Lake-S Kaby Lake-G Cannon Lake-U |
14nm+ 14nm++ 14nm+ 10nm |
2017 2017 2018 2018? |
||
| 9th | Ice Lake ... |
10nm+ | 2018? | ||
| Unknown | Cascade Lake (Server) | ? | ? | ||
So far, Intel has launched three specific Core microarchitecture designs as ‘8th Generation’ products, and a fourth has been announced. At the high-end, we have the desktop class Coffee Lake processors, using Intel’s latest 14++ process and running up to 8 cores. For mobile, Intel has launched the 15W Kaby Lake Refresh processors, pushing quad-core Kaby Lake parts into where dual-core 7th Generation Kaby Lake hardware used to go. Then there is this new product, Kaby Lake-G, which is not explicitly a refresh, as it uses the same 7th Generation H-series cores as before. The fourth piece of the puzzle is Intel’s first crack at 10nm with Cannon Lake, which at CES 2017 was promised to be shipping by the end of the year in 2017, but unfortunately has missed the target.
Extrapolating this terminology, we can look forward (!) to similar naming in future generations. During 2018 we are expecting Intel to fill out the Coffee Lake processor line, perhaps even bringing it into the market where current 8th Generation parts already exist or perhaps even where 7th Generation parts are. Unfortunately, looking at the processor name and number will no-longer be an indication of the microarchitecture underneath.
Intel’s response to this, to be clear, is that they state that the 8th Generation product portfolio represents the best of what Intel has to offer in each of the respective product segments. Intel’s best will have the highest number, essentially. While this is probably not a bad position to take, it can leave customers in a situation where if the customer has a good last-generation product, but wants to ‘downgrade’ to a mid-range latest-generation product, the user could end up paying for getting the same hardware in return.
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skavi - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
Do we even have 8th gen Y?evilpaul666 - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
So is this all Intel has for CES?extide - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
So, here we have a MCM with chips from three different fabs on it. 1 from Intel, 1 from GF, and one from Samsung or SKHynix.Have we ever seen something like that before?
Penti - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
So will we see a 24 CU Vega-chip with HBM2 as a discrete chip for laptops too? It's essentially designed as a lower tier RTG/AMD GPU, kinda specced like a replacement for Polaris 11.Cooe - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
AMD announced Vega Mobile today which is pretty much exactly that. It's a freaking tiny package,and for that reason I expect it to be pretty successful vs Nvidia's traditional GDDR5 designs. (Though no word yet if the Vega Mobile and the semi-custom chip here are the same as far as CU count and what not, but it wouldn't be surprising).
Penti - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
Same Z-height as KBL-G at least. Vega mobile was expected, is definitively related to the chip on the KBL-G package but might be a chip with a slightly different CU/SP count but renders make it look exactly the same.flashbacck - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
"Intel’s internal graphics, known as ‘Gen’ graphics externally, has been third best behind NVIDIA and AMD for grunt."Grunt? huh?
Holliday75 - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
I thought the same thing.Kevin G - Sunday, January 7, 2018 - link
The one thing missing from this article, which I think if fair in the context of the fury of news last week, are Spectre and Meltdown. Intel is currently facing multiple law suits about it, especially in the context of bringing to market with a security flaw. These security flaws maybe the death blow to Cannon Lake which was originally to be a late 2018 part and already had the desktop parts removed form the line up in favor of Coffee Lake.There is another Lake part coming in late 2018 called Whiskey Lake and the rumors are pointing toward it being yet another Sky Lake based 14 nm part (see Kaby and Coffee Lake). I have no idea what these parts could provide other than potential fixes for Meltdown and Spectre minus the offhand possibility of an updated GPU. Next actual CPU core design is set to be Ice Lake which may also be their first 10 nm chip. Intel has shied away from doing to many firsts as once due to the difficulty of isolating problem (is it process? design? packaging? interconnect?) but Intel may have no choice.
Intel's CEO is set to take the stage at CES tomorrow so we'll probably get some answers to their roadmap as well has some groveling about Meltdown and Spectre.
Oh, for the curious, you can look up what codenames Intel does have the horizon here and see Whiskey Lake for yourselves:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/design/pro...
UtilityMax - Thursday, January 11, 2018 - link
This gotta be the worst time to announce a new Intel CPU. Sadly, I think the sheep that are the average consumers will gladly buy PCs with these CPUs.