Just as the history of Intel’s developments in the processor field have more or less followed Moore’s law since it was proposed in 1965, so has the company’s quest to produce increasingly powerful chips that use decreasing amounts of power. Intel showed today that it’s continuing to pursue the goal, with the full release of its 7th Generation Core processing platform, code-named “Kaby Lake,” which it teased at its Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco earlier this month.
Kaby Lake’s debut focuses on devices at the lower end of the power spectrum, with the introduction of a new range of processors using between 4.5 and 15 watts. The chips will be available in laptop computers and Intel-driven mobile devices beginning this fall, and is expected to appear in more than 100 products between now and the end of 2016. The processors will come to enterprise, workstation, desktop, and enthusiast notebook systems by January 2017.
According to Intel, the Kaby Lake builds directly on a number of growth trends the company has observed in the PC market. These include the explosion of the 2-in-1 computing segment, which has further increased demand for thin, light, and efficient computers below the traditional laptop tier; the increased consumption of demanding 4K video; and the advent of home-based VR through devices like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Dipping a Toe Into Kaby Lake
Kaby Lake is the third series of Intel processors to use the company’s 14nm production process, which was introduced with “Broadwell” and continued with “Skylake” a year ago. (It replaces the 10nm “Cannondale” processor that was originally scheduled for 2016, but was pushed back to next year.)
Foremost among the changes in Kaby Lake is a new video system, which builds on the Gen9 graphics architecture Intel used in Skylake. Parallel dedicated fixed function media engines (Multi-Format Codec, or MFX; Video Quality Engine, or VQE; and Scaler and Format Converter, or SFC), paired with integrated HEVC 10-bit encoding and decoding and VP9 decoding, are aimed at increasing performance when working with 4K and improving power efficiency in all situations. Per the company, this translates to as many as 9.5 hours of 4K video streaming, seven hours of video battery life (up from four hours in Skylake), and support for as many as eight simultaneous 4K (4Kp30) content streams.
These performance changes will be available at almost all computing levels, too; Intel particularly touted the ability of its low-power Y and U series to be able to encode and decode HEVC 4K video in real time.
Other key technologies Kaby Lake supports natively include 10Gbps USB 3.1 Generation 2, HDCP 2.2, and Thunderbolt 3.
Because of Kaby Lake’s innovations, Intel claims that an array of thin new systems will become common: convertible 2-in-1s measuring 10mm, a clamshell laptops measuring less than 10mm, and fanless detachable 2-in-1s measuring less than 7mm.
The Opening Lineup
The first six processors Intel announced for Kaby Lake are all dual-core, four-thread parts in the Y and U series: Core m3-7Y30 (1GHz), Core i5-7Y54 (1.2GHz), Core i7-7Y75 (1.3GHz), Core i3-7100U (2.4GHz), Core i5-7200U (2.5GHz), and Core i7-7500U (2.7GHz). There are two input/output configurations possible for these chips: Baseline (U series only), which supports only AHCI for Intel’s Rapid Storage Technology, up to four USB 3.0 ports, eight USB 2.0 ports, two 6Gbps SATA ports, and up to 10 PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 lanes; and Premium (both U and Y series), which supports both RAID and AHCI for Rapid Storage Technology, Smart Response Technology, up to six USB 3.0 ports, up to 10 PCIe 3.0 lanes for the Y series and 12 for the U series, and up to four 6Gbps SATA ports.
The Five-Year Plan
Much of Intel’s push around Kaby Lake centered on comparisons to PCs that are five years old, what the company considers the standard upgrade window. Its press materials offer that Kaby Lake chips are 1.7 times faster at basic processing, for example, and are three times better when playing high-end 3D games at 1,920-by-1,080 resolution. Given the new graphics architecture, the attention paid to 4K video is not surprising: Intel estimates that Kaby Lake chips are 8.6 times faster at creating, editing, and sharing 4K 360-degree videos; 15 times faster at creating video highlights in “near-real time”; and capable of converting a one-hour 4K video in 12 minutes, 6.8 times faster than the older PC.
Should You Upgrade?
If you had already planned to buy a new Intel laptop or 2-in-1 computer in the coming months, you’ll be getting Kaby Lake and all that comes with it. Whether you should bother getting a new machine if you hadn’t already intended to depends on what you have now and how long you’ve had it, and what you do with that computer.
If Intel’s promises hold out, and your computer is five years old or older, this could be a good time to leap into the present and be relatively future-proof as far as today’s essential technologies are concerned. Or, if you’re into 4K video (or you want to get into 4K video), Kaby Lake–based laptops and 2-in-1s should be ideal for it, and thus may be worth the splurge—although not much of one if, indeed, these capabilities are available even on the least expensive systems that use Intel processors.
Otherwise, the verdict is less clear right now. The performance improvements appear modest, if in line with what we usually see across generations of Intel chips, and if you’re more of a productivity user than a video lover, the gains could be less impressive.
We won’t know for sure until we get some of these new Kaby Lake systems in for testing, which we’re working on. We’ll report back as soon as we do, and let you know whether or not it’s better to wait or just go ahead and dive in.
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Intel Unveils Kaby Lake Processor Details
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