Intel 10 nm+ 'Ice lake' will supercede 8th-generation processors

Maybe Intel's 'Ice Lake' will feature improved thermal interface material. (Source: derwiki/Pixabay)

An eagle eyed user of the Intel Codename Decoder has found an entry for the 10 nm+ "Ice Lake," Intel's replacement architecture for the currently unreleased Coffee Lake (14 nm++) and Cannon Lake (10 nm) processors.

by Craig Ward, 2017/08/15

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While we are currently speculating on Coffee Lake (14 nm++) and Cannon Lake (10 nm) and how they fit into the product lineup, an entry in Intel's Codename Decoder has revealed that their replacement will be named "Ice Lake" and will be built on the 10 nm+ process. The output of the decoder says: "The Ice Lake processor family is a successor to the 8th generation Intel® Core™ processor family. These processors utilize Intel’s industry-leading 10 nm+ process technology."

The upcoming CPU lineup from Intel is getting a bit convoluted now. Coffee Lake is the third iteration of Intel's 14 nm process, which is why it gets the two pluses in "14 nm++" above. It will be the 8th generation in the Intel Core series, and is likely to be both a desktop and laptop CPU. Cannon Lake will be the first using the 10 nm process, and based on the output of the codename decoder above it is likely to also be in the 8th generation, placing it along side Coffee Lake. Intel might reserve Cannon Lake for smaller mobile processors to help maximise yields during the more difficult first iterations.

Logically, this would result in Ice Lake being identified as the 9th Generation Intel Core CPU, and since it will be produced with the second iteration of Intel's 10 nm process, we aren't likely to see any desktop/laptop microarchitecture separation.