Buzz
The disclosure of details about Ice Lake, the 9th generation processor, is undoubtedly an unusual move by Intel, considering the company has not officially released processors manufactured on the first 10nm process yet. This information is now available on Intel's codename decoder page.
Exploring Ice Lake, Intel's 9th generation processor
Recently, Intel has confirmed that Ice Lake - the 9th generation processor, will be manufactured using the 10nm+ process. Intel explains Ice Lake as follows:
The 9th generation processor - Ice Lake, is the successor to Intel® Core™ 8th generation processors. These processors utilize the cutting-edge 10nm+ processing technology, a flagship technology from Intel.
Currently, Macbooks are equipped with Intel's Kaby Lake processor released earlier this year. Following in line is the Cannon Lake processor series, the first to be manufactured using the 10nm process. Additionally, there is the Coffee Lake processor generation for computers.
According to Anandtech's explanation of why Intel revealed details about Ice Lake, the 9th generation processor, even though the company has not officially released processors manufactured using the initial 10nm process:
Exploring Ice Lake, Intel's 9th generation processor
The first generation processor manufactured on the 10nm process requires a smaller processor size to ensure high performance. Intel will experiment with 10nm with Cannon Lake, likely reserved for laptops. Coffee Lake with 14nm++ will be the final CPU generation for desktop computers. Next, they will continue developing the 10nm+ process for larger chips by working on their first large chip segments (FPGA, MIC).
What does this mean for Apple? According to KGI, standard Macbook Pro and iMac models may receive support for Coffee Lake processors, manufactured on the 14nm process.
It's highly possible that Cannon Lake will make its way to Macbook/iMac at some point, or everything might skip directly to Ice Lake, expected to be introduced in late 2018 or early 2019.
A few months back, Intel also introduced the core i9 chip with various new enhancements. Interested readers can refer to the article about Core i9 here.
Will Ice Lake, produced on the 10nm Intel process, still carry the i3, i5, or i7 names? And how much performance improvement can we expect from the 9th generation processor compared to the previous one? If you're still undecided about choosing between Intel core i3, i5, or i7 chips, check out the article on comparing Intel core i3, i5, and i7 chips here.
