Intel documents suggest 8-core Coffee Lake is inbound this year

Intel is set to debut its Spectre-less processors at some point in the near future, but before the new architecture rears its head, it looks like the ‘Blue Team’ is set to expand on its current Coffee Lake-S line. A trio of listings have appeared online as a part of Intel’s Technical Documentation website, adding to the many leaks pointing towards a new 8-core CPU.

The post was caught by a keen-eyed Redditor, who managed to catch three references to the speculated 8-core processor. All documents are inaccessible without an Intel login, but each title mentions an unreleased “Coffee Lake-S 8+2” product. This matches Intel’s previous listings, with the first number indicating the amount of course and the latter pertaining to the number of integrated GPU cores.

While Intel has 12-core processors from previous generations, the highest commercial offering in its current 8th generation Coffee Lake line is its Coffee Lake-S 6+2, better known as its 6-core i7-8700K. With this new product listed as “Coffee Lake-S,” it is believed to be a part of the same generation rather than a refresh and might be the first under the i9 banner for Coffee Lake CPUs.

There are hopes that the new processors will remain compatible with the current Z370 motherboards, however it is believed that these new CPUs will launch alongside a Z390 range, sporting connectivity features baked into the chipset itself. Given the higher number in its title, the Z390 chipset is believed to offer more than its predecessors, but this hasn’t been officially confirmed.

Intel has yet to unveil the new CPUs or chipset officially, but it makes sense for an accelerated timeline based on incoming competition from AMD, as the ‘Red Team’ is gearing up for the launch of its Ryzen 2 processors.

So far, the documentation doesn’t give too much else away and until Intel gives official word on the new processors or chipset, it’s worth taking the information with a pinch of salt.

Discuss on our Facebook page, or on our Twitter.

KitGuru Says:  With Spectre issues still floating around, I don’t particularly see the appeal of new processors within the same generation as those still affected, but this seems like it would be a good performance upgrade for those a couple of generations behind. Do you plan to upgrade any time soon or will you wait for brand new architecture before making the leap?

Become a Patron!