New Processor Line-Up Shows Intel Still Lead the Industry

Computer and technology powerhouse Intel has had an impressive list of announcements at CES 2019 this year.

From the latest generation of processing technology to their vision for the future of computing, they packed it all into a series of speeches at their press conference.

Let’s weed through the announcements here and break down just what Intel has announced so far.

Project Athena

Not much was said about Intel's Project Athena at CES, but they did make sure to mention it. It encompasses a new array of industry standards that will help redefine how we compute.

In large, we can look at Project Athena as their vision to keep building hybrid machines and increase the connectivity of users.

Athena stands to push manufacturers to create 5G laptops with integrated AI by the end of 2019. One key thing to point out about their vision for computers is that they think the physical keyboard is on it’s way out with dual-screen computers or devices coming into the limelight.

Lake Field Hybrid CPU and Foveros Packaging

Intel’s Lake Field Hybrid CPU aims to allow computers to switch between different graphics solutions quickly while still preserving battery life.

The chip packs 5 individual cores encompassing 4 Atom-based cores and a 5th large core for operations needing more power. This hybrid approach aims to solve some of these historical issues with graphics switching as well as other processing concerns through its hybrid approach.

Their Foveros packaging is one that couples with hybrid CPUs to allow stacking designs. This ultimately will allow for smaller boards with thinner PCs. Foveros packaging solutions will allow Intel to stack chips vertically while reducing the overall chip size.

The Ice Lake CPUs and Sunny Cove Architecture

Intel CPUs are shrinking further as their Ice Lake CPU aims to bring computing down to a 10-nanometer production note. This isn’t expected until the holidays of 2019, but the processor will have typical improvements as well as better battery performance and better graphics. The CPU will also have native Thunderbolt 3 support and Wi-Fi 6 capabilities to complement its impressive computing power.

Intel’s new SOC, system-on-chip will run the Sunny Cove Architecture featuring DL boost tech. That means AI will run faster and machine learning tasks can be performed twice as fast compared to a chip without the DL boost tech.

Coffee Lake CPUs for Desktop

Intel introduced 6 new chips joining the Coffee Lake CPU family, one of which being the Core i5-9400.

The i5-9400 will have 6 cores and a base clock of 2.9 GHz. Boosting the clock will bring that up to 4.1 GHz. This chip looks to be a fantastic solution for consumers on all spectrums. The first new chips will be available this month with the second string of releases coming in the second quarter of 2019.

Artificial Intelligence

Intel and Alibaba are teaming up to create 3D tracking technologies to analyze athlete data at the 2020 Olympics. They’ll be leveraging their DL Boost technology to make this happen on the XEON Cascade Lake chipset.

Intel also placed their own company, MobileEye front, and centers as they showcased advanced computer vision technologies for the world of autonomous vehicles.

Intel and Ordnance Survey, the national mapping agency in Great Britain, are working together to increase map accuracy for autonomous vehicles as well. Through machine learning, Intel has already started introducing new and improved self-driving techniques and they’re looking forward to more innovation coming.

Snow Ridge 5G

Finally, Intel is going to break into a new market as they release their Snow Ridge chipset. This is their first play into telecom equipment to bring on the 5G revolution.

They ambitiously claimed that they will have a 40 percent stake in the industry by 2020. They’re going to do this by developing new server hardware and shrinking down boards for cell equipment. They want to bring on the new wave of mobile broadband.

Intel’s announcements mean good things for everyone in 2019 as one of the world’s top innovators continues to do just that.