Intel Kaby Lake release date expected in early 2017; Minor upgrades seen

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Intel has described its upcoming processor as "2017 Platform." The Kaby Lake is known to go into mass production by Q4 of 2016 and become available by the early part of next year. It will still be using the 14nm FINFet production process and experts are expecting some minor upgrades to come with it.

Fudzilla reported that the upcoming chip will have  similarities with the Skylake chip. It will be offered under different classifications, namely dual-core and quad-core, and four and eight threads. Kaby Lake-S LGA will even coexist with the some Skylake chips.

Among the notable improvements for the seventh-generation processor is its WiFi module. The new one will be called Windstorm Peak, which includes Wifi and Bluetooth, and will replace Snowfield Peak, which also has a Wifi and Bluetooth combo. Thunderbolt and the Intel LAN features will be carried over from the Skylake platform. They are called Alpine Ridge and Jacksonville internally.  Additionally, the new chips will offer support for more PCI-E lanes and bigger storage capacity.

It was also reported some time ago that the Atom processors, Broxton line, for Laptops and tablets have been discontinued. Liliputing stated that It will be resurrected and will be called Apollo Lake chips. This will fall under the Celeron and Pentium names for the upcoming processor. However, this will be the cheapest and and have the lowest performance chips for laptops, tablets and desktops. It is said to contain the same architecture as the Broxton.

Some of the new processors expected to arrive early are:

Kaby Lake-Y (4.5 watt dual-core chips with Intel HD 615 graphics)

  • Core M3-7Y30: 1 GHz CPU w/2.6 GHz turbo boost and 300/900 MHz graphics
  • Core i5-7Y54: 1.2 GHz CPU w/3.2 GHz turbo boost and 300/950 MHz graphics
  • Core i7-7Y75: 1.3 GHz CPU w/3.6 GHz turbo boost and 300/1050 MHz graphics

Kaby Lake-U (15 watt dual-core chips with Intel HD 620 graphics)

  • Core i3-7100U: 2.4 GHz CPU with 300/1000 MHz graphics (turbo boost N/A)
  • Core i5-7200U: 2.5 GHz CPU w/3.1 GHz turbo boost and 300/1000 MHz graphics
  • Core i7-7500U: 2.7 GHz CPU w/3.5 GHz turbo boost and 300/1050 MHz graphics