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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tipoo - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
Out-earning AMD by far in that corner...I have a feeling this isn't a super high margin product, AMD just needs sales, look at what they sold 'firepros' to Apple for.Hixbot - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
Seems to me, had AMD denied their GPU to Intel, Intel would have no decent SOC product to launch. Meanwhile AMD could release their Zen/Vega APU and be the only guy in town. Apple would have took notice.IGTrading - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
Hi Ian, apparently most websites seem to have failed to notice that the standard height of this product class is the same as the height of AMD's own Vega Mobile, which is set at 1.7mm.Intel clearly states its z-height is 1.7mm so where's the advantage ?!
Therefore, it appears that Intel's EMIB talk is just talk (in this current implementation) and saves no "height" , as correctly pointed out by SemiAccurate.com :
"note that the Z-height, a critical factor in modern notebooks, is the exact same 1.7mm as a Vega-M discrete GPU. Why is this important? It looks like EMIB saves ~0mm in Z-height versus a much simpler to manufacture interposer. Interesting, no?"
Source : https://semiaccurate.com/2018/01/07/intel-kaby-g-n...
and
https://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2018/1/81819abc-2...
Is this a wrong assumption to make, or is Intel lying when they say EMIB is "better" than AMD's interposer ?
boeush - Monday, January 8, 2018 - link
Ian,On the "Intel with Radeon vs i7-7700HQ + GTX 1060 Max-Q Data from Intel, not AnandTech" table, you have the second-from-left column mislabeled ("i7-8550U + GTX 1050")
alumii - Tuesday, January 9, 2018 - link
3 words: New Mac Miniartk2219 - Wednesday, January 10, 2018 - link
That would finally be a mac mini that was worth a damn again, although honestly their place has been taken up by the multitude of small NUC like pc's that are now available. But it would beef up the low end on the mac line, not that Apple cares about the low end, or most of its customers, but i digress.