Kaby Lake Wikipedia

Intel microprocessor, released in Kaby Lake is Intel’s codename for its seventh generation Core microprocessor family announced on August 30, 2016.[7] Like the preceding Skylake, Kaby Lake is produced using a 14 nanometer manufacturing process technology.[8] Breaking with Intel’s previous “tick–tock” manufacturing and design model, Kaby Lake represents the optimized step of the newer process–architecture–optimization model.[9] Kaby Lake began shipping to manufacturers and OEMs in the second quarter of 2016,[10][11] with its desktop chips officially launched in January 2017.

In August 2017, Intel announced Kaby Lake Refresh (Kaby Lake R) marketed as the 8th generation mobile CPUs, breaking the long cycle where architectures matched the corresponding generations of CPUs.[12][13] Skylake was anticipated to be succeeded by the 10 nanometer Cannon Lake, but it was announced in July 2015 that Cannon Lake had been delayed until the second half of 2017.[14][15] In the meantime, Intel released a fourth 14 nm generation on October 5, 2017, named Coffee Lake. Cannon Lake would ultimately emerge in 2018, but only a single mobile CPU was released before it was discontinued the following year.[16][17]

Development history[edit]
As with previous Intel processors (such as the 8088, Banias, Dothan, Conroe, Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, and Skylake), Kaby Lake’s development was led by Intel’s Israeli team, based in Haifa.[18] Intel Israel Development Centers manager Ran Senderovitz said: “When we started out on the project, we were only thinking about basic improvements from the previous generation. But we began looking at things differently with a lot of innovation and determination and we achieved major improvements.” He added that the performance of the seventh generation chips was improved by 12% for applications and 19% for Internet use compared with the sixth generation chips.[19] Third-party benchmarks do not confirm these percentages as far as gaming is concerned.[20]

Features[edit]
Built on an improved 14 nm process (14FF+), Kaby Lake features faster CPU clock speeds, clock speed changes, and higher Turbo frequencies. Beyond these process and clock speed changes, little of the CPU architecture has changed from Skylake,[21] resulting in identical IPC (Instructions Per Clock).[7]

Kaby Lake features a new graphics architecture to improve performance in 3D graphics and 4K video playback.[7][22] It adds native HDCP 2.2 support,[23] along with fixed function decode of H.264 (AVC), HEVC Main and Main10/10-bit, and VP9 10-bit and 8-bit video.[21][24][25][26] Hardware encode is supported for H.264 (AVC), HEVC Main10/10-bit, and VP9 8-bit video. VP9 10-bit encode is not supported in hardware. Both OpenGL 4.6 and OpenCL 3.0 are now supported.[27]

Kaby Lake is the first Core architecture to support hyper-threading for the Pentium-branded desktop CPU SKU. Kaby Lake also features the first overclocking-enabled i3-branded CPU.

Architecture changes compared to Skylake[edit]
Kaby Lake features the same CPU core and performance per MHz as Skylake. Features specific to Kaby Lake include:

* Gen 9.5 (From Gen 9)
* Improved graphics core: full hardware fixed function HEVC/VP9 (including 4K@60fps/10bit) decoding;[30] improved hardware HEVC encoding; full hardware fixed function VP9 8bit encoding; higher GPU clock speeds for select CPUs

* 200 series (Union Point) chipset on socket 1151 (Kaby Lake is compatible with 100 series chipset motherboards after a BIOS update)
* Up to 16 PCI Express 3.0 lanes from the CPU, 24 PCI Express 3.0 lanes from PCH
* Support for Intel Optane Memory storage caching (only on motherboards with the 200 series chipsets)
* Support for PTWRITE instruction to write data to an Intel Processor Trace packet stream

Starting from this generation, the built-in GPus core supports HAGS in the Windows 10 version of 2004 or newer, but currently support is only provided with insider drivers.

Operating system support[edit]
Intel began to add Kaby Lake support to the Linux kernel on version 4.5.[31] A P state bug was fixed in kernel 4.10 that had prevented motherboards from activating the processors’ turbo frequencies.[32]

Under new policies established in January 2016, Microsoft only supports the latest version of Windows on newly-released CPU microarchitectures, beginning with Kaby Lake and AMD Bristol Ridge. Therefore, Microsoft only supports Kaby Lake under Windows 10,[33][34] and Windows Update blocks updates from being installed on Kaby Lake systems running versions older than Windows 10. In support of this restriction, Intel provides chipset drivers for Windows 10 only.[35][37] An enthusiast-created modification was released that disabled the Windows Update check and allowed Windows 8.1 and earlier to continue to be updated on the platform.[38]

Support for most Kaby Lake processors and older was dropped by Windows 11, excluding the Core i7-7820HQ and X series.[39]

Known issues[edit]
Kaby Lake has a critical flaw where some short loops may cause unpredictable system behavior. The issue can be fixed if the motherboard manufacturer releases a BIOS update with the fix.[40][41]

Thermal design power (TDP) is the designed maximum heat generated by the chip running a specific workload at base clock. On a single microarchitecture, as the heat produced increases with voltage and frequency, this thermal design limit can also limit the maximum frequency of the processor.[42] However, CPU testing and binning allows for products with lower voltage/power at a particular frequency, or higher frequency within the same power limit.[43][44]

Desktop processors:

* High-power (K/X): * For dual-core: 60 W
* For quad-core: 91 W (LGA1151) – 112W (LGA2066)

* Medium-power: * For dual-core: 51…54 W
* For quad-core: 65 W

* Low-power (T): 35 W

Mobile processors:

* High-power (H): 45 W with configurable TDP-down to 35 W
* Medium-power (U): 15…28 W with configurable TDP-down to 7.5 W
* Low-power (Y): 5…7 W with configurable TDP-down to 3.5 W

List of 7th generation Kaby Lake processors[edit]
Desktop processors[edit]
Intel Celeron G3930 die shot

Intel Celeron G3930 top view

Intel Celeron G3930 bottom view

Features common to desktop Kaby Lake CPUs:

* LGA 1151 socket (Except the Core i7 7740X and Core i5 7640X, which use the LGA 2066 socket.)
* DMI 3.0 and PCIe 3.0 interfaces
* Dual channel memory support in the following configurations: DDR3L .35 V (32 GB maximum) or DDR .2 V (64 GB maximum) * The Core i7 7740X and Core i5 7640x support DDR (64 GB maximum), but do not support DDR3L memory.

* A total of 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes
* The Core-branded processors support the AVX2 instruction set. The Celeron and Pentium-branded ones support only SSE4.1/4.2.
* 350 MHz base graphics clock rate * The Core i7 7740X and Core i5 7640x do not have an integrated GPU.

* No L4 cache (eDRAM)
* A release date of January 3, 2017 (KBL-S) and June 2017 (KBL-X)

Kaby Lake-S[edit]
Kaby Lake-X (High-End Desktop)[edit]
Mobile processors[edit]
Kaby Lake-H (High power)[edit]
Maximum PCIe Lanes: 16

Kaby Lake-U (Medium power)[edit]
Kaby Lake-Y (Low power)[edit]
Server/workstation Xeon processors[edit]
List of 8th generation Kaby Lake R processors[edit]
Mobile processors[edit]
Low/medium power[edit]
In late 2016, it was reported that Intel had been working on a processor family codenamed “Kaby Lake R” (“R” for “Refresh”).[46] On August 21, 2017, the eighth generation mobile CPUs were announced.[47] The first products released were four “Kaby Lake R” processors with a 15W TDP.[48] This marketing is distinct from previous generational changes of the Core product line, where a new generation coincided with a new microarchitecture.[49] Intel has stated that the 8th generation would be based on multiple microarchitectures, including Kaby Lake R, Coffee Lake, and Cannon Lake.[50]

Processor
branding
ModelCores
(threads)
CPU
clock rate
Turbo clock GHzNum of cores

GPUMax GPUclock rate

L3
cache
TDPcTDPReleasedate

Price
(USD)
124UpDownCore i78650U4 (8)1.9 GHz4.24.23.9UHD MHz8 MB15 W25 W10 WQ3 2017$ U1.8 GHz4.04.03.7Core i58350U1.7 GHz3.63.63.61100 MHz6 MB$ U1.6 GHz3.43.43.4Core i38130U2 (4)2.2 GHz3.43.4—1000 MHz4 MB15 W—10 WQ1 2018$281Pentium Gold4417U2.3 GHz—HD MHz2 MB15 W12.5 WQ1 2019$161List of 8th generation Kaby Lake G processors[edit]
Mobile processors[edit]
High power[edit]
Maximum number of PCIe lanes: 8. One-package processors with discrete graphics chip – it is connected with main CPU core using a PCI Express link through an embedded multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB). Release date: Q1 2018.

Processor
branding
ModelCores
(threads)
CPU
clock rate
Turbo clock GHzNum of cores

GPUMax GPUclock rate

Discrete GPUL3
cache
TDPPrice
(USD)
124Core i78809G4 (8)3.1 GHz4.2Un­knownHD MHzRadeon RX Vega M GH8 MB100 W?8709G4.1?8706GRadeon RX Vega M GL65 W?8705G$523[51]Core i58305G2.8 GHz3.86 MB?Discrete GPUUnitsClock rateMemoryComputingShadingBaseMax.SizeBandwidthBus typeBus widthRadeon RX Vega M GH MHz1190 MHz4 GB204.8 GB/sHBM21024 bitRadeon RX Vega M GL MHz1011 MHz179.2 GB/s List of 8th generation Amber Lake Y processors[edit]
On August 28, 2018, Intel announced a refreshed lineup of ultra low power mobile Kaby Lake CPUs under the moniker Amber Lake.[52]

Mobile processors[edit]
Low power[edit]
Processorbranding

ModelCores(threads)

CPU clock rateGPUMax GPUclock rate

L3cache

TDPcTDPReleasedate

PriceBaseMax turboUpDownCore i78500Y2 (4)1.5 GHz4.2 GHzUHD MHz4 MB5 W7 W3.5 WQ1 2019$393Core i58310Y1.6 GHz3.9 GHzUHD 6177 W—$ Y3.6 GHz8200Y1.3 GHz3.9 GHzUHD MHz5 W7 W3.5 WQ3 2018$291Core m38100Y1.1 GHz3.4 GHz900 MHz8 W4.5 W$281Pentium Gold4425Y1.7 GHz—850 MHz2 MB6 W—4.5 WQ1 2019$161List of 10th generation Amber Lake Y processors[edit]
On August 21, 2019, Intel announced[53] their 10th generation Amber Lake[54] ultra low power CPUs.

Mobile processors[edit]
Processorbranding

ModelCores(threads)

CPU clock rateGPUMax GPUclock rate

L3cache

TDPcTDPPriceBaseMax turboUpDownCore i710510Y4 (8)1.2 GHz4.5 GHzUHD1150 MHz8 MB7 W9 W4.5 W$403Core i510310Y1.1 GHz4.1 GHz1050 MHz6 MB5.5 W$ Y1.0 GHz4.0 GHzCore i310110Y2 (4)1000 MHz4 MB$287Pentium Gold6500Y2 (4)1.1 GHz3.4 GHz900 MHz4 MB5 W7 W3.5 WSee also[edit]
1. ^ Transistorized memory, such as RAM, ROM, flash and cache sizes as well as file sizes are specified using binary meanings for K (10241), M (10242), G (10243), etc.

References[edit]