Leaked Intel Roadmap Highlights 10nm Cannonlake, Coffee Lake Processors For 2017 Through 2018

Intel officially disrupted its "tick-tock" release cadence when it introduced Kaby Lake at the end of August, a new processor architecture that's intended to fill the gap between Skylake and Intel's long awaited transition to a 10nm manufacturing process. That will take place when Cannonlake arrives, which newly leaked roadmaps have pegged for around the fourth quarter of 2017.

Kaby Lake's debut was in mobile form. Like Skylake, it's built on a 14nm manufacturing process and in fact it borrows heavily from its predecessor—its CPU cores, cache structure, and graphics engine are all similar to Skylake. However, Intel baked in a number enhancements to improve overall performance, energy efficiency, and multimedia capabilities as the market transitions to 4K video playback.

The leaked roadmaps, posted by a user on Anandtech's forums, focus on Intel's mobile strategy. They show 45W Kaby Lake-H processors arriving in the fourth quarter of this year, followed by another batch of 15W/28W Kaby Lake-U SoCs with GT3e graphics in the first quarter of next year.


Barring any changes or further delays, Kaby Lake will carry Intel through most of 2017 until Cannonlake arrives towards the end of the fourth quarter. Cannonlake will be Intel's first 10nm processors for consumers and the initial batch will focus on ultra-low power platforms with Cannonlake-Y SoCs sporting a 5.2W TDP, up slightly from Kaby Lake-Y's 4.5W TDP.

According to one of the roadmaps, Intel will also release its Cannonlake-U processor line at the same time. These chips will have a 15W TDP, same as Kaby Lake-U, and GT2 graphics.


Both Cannonlake lines will extend into 2018 and eventually sit alongside Coffee Lake, another 10nm release that's scheduled to debut in the second quarter of that year. Coffee Lake will come in H (45W, GT2 graphics) and U (15W/28W, GT3e graphics) flavors, the former boasting six cores and the latter utilizing four cores.

What this means for consumers is a continuation of thinner, faster, and more power efficient laptop and 2-in-1 device solutions.