While it’s not exactly a surprize as we mentioned this a couple of times already Intel last week confirmed it on their technology and manufacturing day, their new 14nm ++ process. Intel also announced that they would start shipping their new 10nm based mobility processors later this year.
So Coffee Lake is the next 14nm CPU design after Kaby Lake bringing six-core / 12-thread processors into high-end laptops and standard desktops for the first time. Then late 2017 Intel would shrink Kaby Lake down to a 10nm node, these are Cannonlake processors. Earlier rumors stated that the new 10nm process would bring Intel a whopping 40% performance improvement. However, the performance first generation of 10nm based is actually expected to be lower than the 14nm++ based processors due to being limited towards low powered mobile chips. Intel has already waved a 10nm Cannon Lake chip around at CES in January this year. But the path to 10nm seems to be a difficult one. The biggest improvement on the new 10nm process will be low power consumption and thus improved transistor density. Then going from 10nm towards 10nm++ would bring additional 30% power reduction, and/or 15% higher performance.
Intel has stated that their eighth generation desktop processors would be based on an improvised 14nm process so we can expect the 10nm based (Cannon-Lake) desktop CPUs being perhaps being marketed as the ninth generation desktop processors. As with Kaby Lake, we’l likely see Coffee Lake first in low-power laptops and 2-in-1s, then on the desktop in 2017. There may come a point where you have a choice of a Cannon Lake or Coffee Lake processor. Right now, it is way too early to say which will be the one to buy.
