The latest roadmap for Intel’s upcoming desktop-based Kaby Lake processors has been leaked to the web. The roadmap indicates that the Kaby Lake desktop processor family, known as kaby Lake-S will arrive in Q4 of 2016 (December) along with the latest 200-series chipset motherboards. These new processors will be the third iteration in Intel’s “process-architecture-optimization” strategy. So first we had Broadwell, then Skylake, and now we will have Kaby Lake.
The retail Kaby Lake chips will be available in two variants, Kaby Lake 4+2 and Kaby Lake 2+2. The 4+2 will be quad-core parts with GT2 graphics. The 2+2 will be dual core products with GT2 graphics. The Kaby Lake chips will likely get the typical increased core performance (5-10% improvement) over Skylake chips. The processors should have the same features for enthusiasts like enhanced full range BCLK overclocking and 95W “Unlocked” options to choose from. The unlocked family will be available later in Q2 2017 and would be known as the Kaby Lake-X series. Expect these processors to be a big part of CES 2017 in early January.
These processors will launch with the Intel 200-series chipset, which does not have any major changes from the Skylake PCH, except for the fact that it does include support for Intel Optane technology which utilizes Intel’s 3D XPoint memory to deliver high-performance SSDs and memory solutions. This includes support for Mansion Beach (Optane SSD PCIe/NVMe Gen3 x4), Brighton Beach (Optane SSD PCIe/NVMe Gen3 x4) and Stony Beach (Optane Memory PCIe/NVMe Gen 3 x2 (m.2)) solutions.
