Coffee Lake Approach
Second declension of Skylake (SKL) after Kaby Lake (KBL), Coffee Lake (CFL) is expected to arrive on the stalls within a few months. From a micro-architectural point of view, these "Core 8th generation" chips will remain almost identical to the SkyLake released in 2015. They will, however, be distinguished by the presence of 6 cores, a first for a CPU running on the mainstream platform LGA1151. Their launch will be a new attempt to counter the AMD Ryzen. If the technical aspect of the CFL does not really deserve long comment, the commercial positioning and segmentation of the range will tell long about the degree of concern of Intel. We were able to get some preliminary information on this, As the first final samples of Coffee Lake arrive. Keep in mind, however, that Intel's marketing is currently in a state of extreme nervousness and does not hesitate to change its names at the last minute (as with the Core X). Here is the information we have on samples of the moment.
At the top of the range, we first find the Core i7 8700K. It, therefore, has 6 cores running at a base frequency of 3.70 GHz. HyperThreading (SMT) is enabled, allowing it to handle 12 threads simultaneously. The chip incorporates an L3 cache of 12 MB and offers a TDP of 95W. This frequency seems extremely aggressive: the newest Core i7 7800X in LGA2066 does not exceed the 3.50 GHz base and for a TDP of 140W! A 6-core 3.70 GHz would allow this Core i7 to surpass in frequency the Ryzen 5 1600X (3.60 GHz) of a short head, which is probably not a coincidence. Intel is also planning a non-K version, the Core i7 8700, whose frequency drops very sharply (as on previous generations): 3.20 GHz base.
More interesting, the Core i5 8600K also has 6 cores, at a frequency barely lower than 3.60 GHz. It is also distinguished from the Core i7 by the absence of Hyperthreading and by an L3 cache limited to 9 Mo. Its TDP remains positioned at 95W. A complete declination of the range is expected, until the Core i5 8400. The frequency of the latter will be limited to 2.80 GHz but it will retain the 6 cores with a TDP not exceeding (theoretically) the 65W.
Of Coffee, Lake Mobile are also provided for laptops. At the top of the range, there are versions with 6 cores (a first in this segment) clocked at a much lower frequency. Intel currently validates samples at 2.00 GHz for a TDP of 45W. But the most interesting is probably on the Coffee Lake-U range. The test platforms currently running show a Quad-Core CPU at 2.00 GHz and 6 MB cache, with HyperThreading and a GT3e graphics chip (with eDRAM), all in a thermal envelope of 28W. A notable evolution since Intel had until then offered no CPU type "U" with more than two cores; It was necessary to turn to the "H" range to find the Quad-Core, with a TDP of 45W.
Source:Coffee Lake en approche • CPC Hardware