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Intel Announces First Low-Power 'Kaby Lake' Mobile Processors

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After showing off the capabilities of its new 7th Generation Core, Kaby Lake, during the Intel Developer Forum earlier in the month, Intel corporate vice president Navin Shenoy today gave more details regarding the third "optimized" member of the 14 nm chip family following Broadwell and Skylake. In today's announcement -- focused on the speed and 4K UHD support the new CPUs provide -- Intel officially unveiled its first Y-Series and U-Series processors, which could be included in future Retina MacBook and MacBook Air updates, respectively.

The new Kaby Lake processors (prepared as a mid-generation update ahead of Intel's Cannonlake processors) offer a moderate upgrade on earlier Skylake chips, with Intel focusing on the user benefits of its 7th Generation Core processors. These advantages namely include: 4K ultra-HD video streaming, 360-videos, and more intensive graphical performance for video games on smaller computers.


In addition to gaining access to 4K content from services like YouTube and Netflix, Kaby Lake will grant users the power to create and edit their own 4K content with speeds up to 8x faster than a five-year-old PC. Kaby Lake was manufactured using an upgraded version of Intel's 14-nanometer process, referred to as 14nm+, which the company claims has produced a processor with 12 percent faster productivity performance and up to 19 percent faster web performance over previous generations.

Everyday users will see these manifested in smooth app switching, even within performance-heavy apps like 4K video editing software, and basic battery life improvements. In this department, Kaby Lake will bring up to 9.5 hours of playback on 4K videos in any computer it's found in this fall. The release of Kaby Lake will mark Intel's first processor released after the company abandoned its tick-tock release cycle, where "ticks" represented shrinking chip fabrication processes and "tocks" introduced new architectures.

kaby_lake_y.jpg
Kaby Lake "Y-Series" chips appropriate for MacBook​

The three Kaby Lake Y-Series processors announced today are suitable upgrades for the MacBook, which was just updated to Skylake chips in April and thus is not expected to see another upgrade in the near future. The three U-Series chips could potentially make their way into future MacBook Air models, assuming graphics performance is sufficient for Apple's needs. The new U-Series chips include Intel HD "GT2" graphics, while Apple has historically preferred to use chips with relatively higher-performance "GT3" graphics in the MacBook Air.

kaby_lake_u.jpg
Kaby Lake "U-Series" chips possibly appropriate for MacBook Air​

Apple is rumored to be launching updated MacBook Air models as soon as October, but it is unclear whether the machines will use Skylake or these new Kaby Lake chips, as the current models continue to run on earlier Broadwell chips.

More powerful mobile Kaby Lake chips with Iris graphics and desktop chips such as those appropriate for the MacBook Pro and iMac are expected to begin debuting in January, but Intel did not release a specific timeline or specs for those families.

Article Link: Intel Announces First Low-Power 'Kaby Lake' Mobile Processors
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/08/30/intel-kaby-lake-mobile/
I'd bet money there will be a Kaby Lake MBP in March. But Skylake models will release in time for holiday shopping. Personally I'll wait. I'm sure the new touch bar etc. will have a few kinks to work out in the first gen.
 
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"but it is unclear whether the machines will use Skylake or these new Kaby Lake chips"

I'll clear that up for you right now, it's Skylake. Anything coming out in the next two months has been locked for a while. Now lets all stop pretending they might sneak in Kaby Lake because it's only going to lead to some very sad faces around here in a couple of weeks if we all keep hoping with our fingers crossed regardless.
 
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There was a lot of mentions of 4K. Hopefully this also means HDMI 2.0a support. But will that port be sacrificed on the rMBP for thinness?
 
scrapisimo said:
Please, Apple, delay the Macs a little bit but put Kaby Lake in them. Please!
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No one at  is listening to these comments, unfortunately. They're about to unveil new MacBooks in a week so you can go ahead and kill any hope for these chips.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if all of these delays are as a result of Apple switching to their own CPUs in some of their PC products and Intel starting to be a fab for other companies designs is a response to the likelyhood that this will happen eventually
 
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jasonklee said:
Apple would still use Core 2 Duo if they could.
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Naw, if they did that then they need to have a separate GPU which would make their quest for thinness and battery life a little harder. They surely don't care much about cpu performance though, stick in whatever will give them a thin computer, long battery life and a high profit margin. Other than the profit margin I am fine with those priorities
 
Looks like Macbooks with Skylake will never be released... :D

Whatever.........

Just give me the new Macbook Pro's with Kaby lake (this year) ;)

Whatever.........

Macbooks with Kaby lake *before* Macbook Pros with Skylake is also terrific idea. haha. sounds: :cool:
 
Gorms said:
"but it is unclear whether the machines will use Skylake or these new Kaby Lake chips"

I'll clear that up for you right now, it's Skylake. Anything coming out in the next two months has been locked for a while. Now lets all stop pretending they might sneak in Kaby Lake because it's only going to lead to some very sad faces around here in a couple of weeks if we all keep hoping with our fingers crossed regardless.
Click to expand...

I don't think so - Apple (and other OEMs) will have had access to engineering samples of Kaby Lake for months. When Intel announce they are launching the chips, what they mean is they are now selling bulk ammounts. I guarentee you that probably all the the OEMs including Apple have working Kaby Lake prototypes in their engineering labs as we type...

Once again, I question why the rMB was refreshed in April - noone was clammering for the refresh (at least, noth without TB3) and the update, while a nice performance boost, wasn't exactly Earth-shattering. If Apple had held off for a mere 5 months they could have been there at the start with a Kaby Lake rMB - I'm guessing the improvements in cpu/gpu over Broadwell would have been a good boost. As it is, surely it's unlikely that the rMB will be updated again this year even though it's the machine that needs the biggest performance boost.
 
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Waiting for Skylake MBP Thread was the false prophet! All hail Waiting for Kaby Lake MBP Thread! Oct should be good. Hopefully
 
Is it in any way possible for Apple to get "early access" to Kaby Lake CPUs just for the new MBPs?

If not, I hope they delay the Macbook Pro launch until January, because I'd hate to buy a new laptop right now only for it to be a full CPU generation behind after 3 months.
 
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