Intel Kaby Lake microarchitecture

Kaby Lake (micro architecture)
Manufacturer	Intel
Manufacturing process	14 nm +
base	Socket 1151
Sales description	Core i3, 7th generation Core i5, 7th generation Core i7, 7th generation Xeon Celeron Pentium Core-M
Cores / threads	2/2, 2/4, 4/4, 4/8
L1 cache	32 + 32 KB per core
L2 cache	256 KB per core
L3 cache	2/3/4/6/8 MB
predecessor	Broadwell (tick) Skylake (tock)
successor	Coffee Lake

Kaby Lake is the code name of a processor microarchitecture from the chip manufacturer Intel , which was published in the 3rd quarter of 2016. Like the Broadwell and Skylake processors, the Kaby Lake processors are based on a 14 nm process. Intel calls the manufacturing process 14nm + or 14 nm the first optimization , the frequencies can be increased slightly by lower leakage currents, the micro-architecture of the core itself is the same as the Skylake micro-architecture.

properties

Compared to the previous models of the Skylake generation, the clock rate at Kaby Lake has been increased a little and the turbo clock function has been improved, which results in a slight improvement in performance of the notebook processors of 15 to 25 percent. For some non-Xeon models, the option to use ECC memory has been removed . These clock increases with the same power consumption are made possible by improvements to the 14 nm process. As a new feature, in addition to the higher clock rates, Kaby Lake also has improved codec acceleration for H.265 and VP9 videos. In addition, the Speed ​​Shift technology has been improved, which ensures faster reactions of the Turbo Boost under Windows 10 .

Desktop processors

Kaby Lake desktop processors are compatible with Socket 1151 and 200 chipsets (Union Point).
Many motherboard manufacturers offer BIOS updates that enable the use of Kaby Lake processors with the 100 chipsets (Sunrise Point).

As usual, the Kaby Lake processors are also equipped with an integrated graphics unit from the HD 600 series. However, Intel only provides drivers for Windows 10 for download. In addition, the i3-7350K is the first Core i3 model with a freely selectable multiplier.

Kaby Lake Refresh

On August 21, 2017, Intel presented four new notebook processors with the Kaby Lake Refresh. Technically, the Kaby Lake Refresh is a slightly improved Kaby Lake architecture, which is also manufactured in a slightly improved 14nm + process. For the first time, Intel has installed four physical processor cores in a ULV CPU and speaks of a performance increase of up to 40% in this context. The Kaby Lake R processors are sold under the names Core i5 8xxx U and Core i7 8xxx U , not to be confused with the six-core desktop processors of the 8th generation, which are based on the Coffee Lake architecture.

Kaby Lake-G

On January 8, 2018, Intel introduced five new processors for notebooks, which were developed under the code name Kaby Lake-G. The greatest specialty of these CPUs is the integrated AMD-Radeon-Vega-M -GPU. The Kaby Lake G processors sold as Core i5 8xxx G and Core i7 8xxx G .

Technically, the Kaby Lake-G are quad-core processors like the Kaby Lake-H notebook processors, which also have four cores and base clock rates of around 3 GHz. An HD Graphics 630 is still integrated in the processor's chip. Not only the processor is on the same package , but two more dies for the AMD Radeon Vega M GPU and the 4 GB HBM2 memory. The connection between the GPU and HBM is not made via an interposer, as with previous graphic cards with HBM, but via an embedded multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB) . This technology was developed by Intel in order to achieve very high data rates in the smallest of spaces, but to be cheaper than with an interposer. The connection between GPU and processor does not require EMIB and runs directly through the substrate. For this, eight PCIe 3.0 lanes are branched off from the CPU . Depending on the model, Intel specifies a TDP of 65 or 100 W for the Kaby Lake-G for the entire package with CPU, GPU and HBM.

Instruction sets

All processors support SSE to SSE4 , AES , CLMUL , MPX and SGX , i3 and higher also AVX or AVX2, TSX , F16C , BMI and FMA .

See also

• Intel Core i series
• List of Intel Core i processors
• Intel Xeon (Kaby Lake)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ various authors: Kaby Lake Intel Microarchitecture. In: Wikichip. September 28, 2017. Retrieved October 2, 2017 . 
2. ↑ Till Schönborn: Kaby Lake in the test: Skylake on steroids. In: Notebookcheck. September 12, 2016, accessed December 3, 2016 . 
3. ↑ Volker Rißka: Most powerful Pentium of all time: From 2017 always with two cores and four threads. In: ComputerBase. January 11, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2017 . 
4. ↑ Wayne Manion: Kaby Lake Pentiums gain Hyper-Threading and lose ECC support. In: The Tech Report. January 10, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Volker Rißka: Intel Kaby Lake reveals: Six models with significantly more clock for notebooks & Co. In: ComputerBase. August 30, 2016, accessed December 3, 2016 . 
6. ^ Matthias Wellendorf: Intel with details on Kaby Lake. (No longer available online.) Tom's Hardware on November 18, 2015, archived from the original on September 1, 2016 ; accessed on August 30, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
7. ↑ Michael Günsch: Kaby Lake Support: Gigabyte supplies beta BIOS for new Intel CPUs. In: ComputerBase. October 28, 2016, accessed October 31, 2016 . 
8. ↑ Supported Operating Systems for Intel® Graphics Products. Retrieved November 29, 2016 . 
9. ↑ Volker Rißka: Intel Core i-8000: Four times Kaby Lake Refresh from today, Coffee Lake from autumn. In: ComputerBase. August 21, 2017. Retrieved November 27, 2017 . 
10. ↑ Volker Rißka: Intel Kaby Lake-G: Starting shot for five CPUs with AMD's Vega graphics unit. In: ComputerBase. January 8, 2018, accessed January 8, 2018 . 
11. ↑ Volker Rißka: Intel Technologies: Details on 10 nm, 22FFL, EMIB, MCPs and 450 mm wafers. In: ComputerBase. March 29, 2017, accessed January 8, 2018 .