Intel has announced that it will launch its 9th generation 'Coffee Lake' Core CPUs for
mainstream and high-performance laptops in the second quarter of this year. The
company has not yet disclosed specifics of the models to be launched, but says that
the lineup will include new Core i9 mobile CPUs that will be used in top-end laptops
for gaming and digital content creation. The teaser was part of Intel's presence at the
ongoing Game Developers' Conference in San Francisco, since Intel will be targeting
gamers who want premium quality graphics at high framerates in the latest games,
all while streaming simultaneously.
The new CPU models promise more power for gaming and content creation within standard laptop form factors. As part of the platform refresh, 9th Gen Core CPUs will support Gigabit-class Wi-Fi 6 and Intel Optane Memory for low-latency communication and storage. Although the company did not announce any specifications or even model numbers, Techspot reported a leak last month pointing to two new models in each of the Core i9, Core i7, and Core i5 tiers. The purported top-end Core i9-9980HK model is said to feature eight cores with Hyper-Threading for a total of 16 threads, and a top boost speed of 5GHz.
They should also be manufactured using Intel's latest 14nm++ process technology. With a Q2 2019 release timeframe, we can expect to see laptops based on these new processors no later than the annual Computex trade show in the last week of May. Finally, Intel announced a research collaboration with Spirit AI to address toxicity in gaming, using AI including voice recognition to allow more active moderation of voice chats in online multiplayer games. Online harassment and bullying in games have become huge concerns.
