Intel Kaby Lake

The main articles are:

• Processor
• CPU

2024: Downfall vulnerability that allows attackers to steal users' personal data

processors In families Intel released over the past eight years, vulnerability Downfall was found, allowing attackers to steal personal data users, including bank keys enciphering and violate privacy. TAdviser Representatives told about this MTUSI on January 16, 2024.

MTUSI information security specialists tested the Downfall vulnerability and presented a report on the consequences it leads to. Read more here.

The Downfall vulnerability became known back in August 2023. The flaw was discovered by Google specialist Daniel Moghimi, who after studying it found out that the vulnerability could be exploited through AVX2 and AVX-512 instructions. Downfall comes bundled with Intel's Skylake line processors (Skylake, Cascade Lake, Cooper Lake, Amber Lake, Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake, Whiskey Lake and Comet Lake subseries) and Tiger Lake.^[1]

2017: Kaby Lake Refresh is the eighth generation of Intel processors

On August 21, 2017, Intel officially announced the eighth generation of Core processors. The new family is represented by the Y series (for tablets with plug-in keyboards), U (for thin and light convertible laptops), H (for high-performance laptops and mobile workstations) and S (for powerful desktops).

First, chips from the Kaby Lake Refresh line were announced, which received four compute cores with Hyper-Threading support, a dual-channel DDR4-2400/LPDDR3-2133 memory controller and a UHD Graphics 620 graphics accelerator with HDMI 2.0 support. Depending on the model and the amount of dynamic "overclocking," the clock speed is from 1.6 to 4.2 GHz.

Eighth Generation Intel Core Processor Specifications

Speaking about the increase in speed, Intel notes that users of the Kaby Lake platform will see a moderate increase in performance, but updating, for example, a five-year-old system on Ivy Bridge, will notice more than twofold increase. According to a press release, the eighth generation of Intel Core processors outperforms previous solutions by 40%.

The company claims that devices based on the new chips will be able to work up to 10 hours without recharging in 4K video playback mode. Another important point is the built-in support for Microsoft Mixed Reality technology for displaying content in virtual reality format.

Compared to Kaby Lake-R, Kaby Lake Refresh managed to keep heat generation (TDP) at 15 watts, despite an increase in the number of cores. At the same time, Intel was forced to significantly reduce the operating frequency of the chips, increasing the maximum Turbo Boost by a couple of hundred MHz. It is also worth noting the doubled size of the L3 cache.

In addition to Kaby Lake Refresh, the eighth generation of Intel Core processors will include the Coffee Lake family (scheduled for release in fall 2017) and Cannon Lake.^[2]

2016: Announcement

At the end of August 2016, Intel officially unveiled the seventh generation of Core processors. Kaby Lake architecture chips are designed for laptops, tablets, desktops and servers.

Intel Kaby Lake processors are manufactured using a 14nm process technology, as well as their predecessors Skylake. The developers claim 12% increased performance and 19% faster processing of Internet content in Kaby Lake compared to Skylake.

The new processors implement processing of video content with 4K UHD resolution. Up to eight 4K HEVC/VP9 streams with a frame rate of 30 Hz can be decoded in real time. While Skylake does some of the work of decoding HEVC by x86 cores without supporting the 4K and VP9 format.

Kaby Lake boosts internet speed by 19%

Intel says that devices running on the Kaby Lake platform will be able to work without recharging for up to 9.5 hours when watching 4K video. It is noted that these processors are 10 times more energy efficient than the first generation Intel Core solutions. Skylake architecture has eight-fold superiority. Thus, Kaby Lake can be considered the most energy efficient PC chips from Intel.

Kaby Lake can be considered the most energy efficient PC chips from Intel

The flagship model in the Kaby Lake line will be the 2.7GHz Intel Core-i7500U, 8% faster than the equivalent Skylake model. In the high frequency mode (up to 3.5 GHz), the superiority of the novelty is 13%.

In addition, Intel Kaby Lake processors have acquired a PCI Express 3.0 bus, which will allow connecting, for example, high-speed solid-state drives to them.

The seventh generation Intel Core series will include Kaby Lake-Y and Kaby Lake-U models. The first of them are designed for ultra-compact computers and hybrid tablets, and the second - for thin laptops (ultrabooks). Also in early 2017, Kaby Lake processors for desktops and server systems are expected to be released.^[3]

Notes