The 40th anniversary of the iconic Intel 8086 processor falls on June 8, 2018, and to mark the occasion, Intel has announced that it will release a limited edition Core i7-8086K CPU model, which will be its first to run at 5GHz. The new Core i7-8086K has six cores with Hyper-Threading, a base speed of 4GHz, and a single-core turbo boost speed of 5GHz. It is also unlocked for enthusiasts to overclock further. It has a 95W TDP and is manufactured using Intel's current 14nm fabrication process, like the rest of the 8th Gen lineup so far.
Intel Senior Vice President and Client Computing Group General Manager, Gregory Bryant, made the announcement on stage at Intel's annual keynote kicking off Computex 2018 in Taipei. Intel is taking advantage of its 8th Generation Core's numbering scheme, and the Core i7-8086K will sit above the Core i7-8700K as the new flagship of Intel's mainstream CPU lineup. It isn't yet known how many units Intel will produce as part of the Limited Edition run. Pricing and details of the chip's availability have not yet been announced.
The Intel 8086 was the company's first X86 processor, and marked the beginning of the evolution of the PC as we know it today. It had 29,000 transistors and ran at 5MHz. To celebrate its 40th anniversary, which falls within Intel's own 50th anniversary year, the company will be giving away 8,086 of its new Core i7-8986K processors to fans across the world - although India is not in the list of eligible countries.
With AMD set to announce its second-generation Threadripper processors at Computex 2018, Bryant also gave the audience a "sneak peek" at a future 28-core desktop processor. No name or other details were announced, but this model could be positioned at the top of a refreshed Core X-series lineup when it is launched later this year. The prototype CPU was shown running Cinebench R15 on all cores and threads, achieving a score of over 7,300.
Bryant also introduced two new processor families that will be sold under Intel's 8th Generation umbrella later this year. Whiskey Lake is the codename of a 15W U-series laptop processor series promising significant performance gains for thin-and-light laptops. New models from Acer, Asus and HP were shown on stage, and over 140 such refreshed laptop will be available by fall 2018. Whiskey Lake CPUs will use a new platform controller with Gigabit Wi-Fi and native USB 3.1.
The second new family is codenamed Amber Lake, and will be the next generation of Y-series processors for ultra-portable devices. Intel has repeatedly delayed its 10nm Cannonlake generation which was supposed to address this market, and it is not known whether Amber Lake will still use the current 14nm process. There will also be new S-series desktop processors, which could line up with rumours of an 8-core desktop CPU coming soon. It is not yet known how all of these CPUs will be positioned alongside existing ones within the 8th Generation.
To help improve battery life, Intel announced that it is working with the LCD manufacturing industry to develop "game-changing" 1-Watt panels. A pre-recorded demonstration showed a laptop playing video for over 25 hours on a single charge thanks to a low-power screen. The high-quality full-HD panel can improve battery life by 4-8 hours without sacrificing performance, according to Bryant.
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