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A bold prediction about 9th generation Intel Core CPUs
It's not going to be a consumer-oriented die at all. It's going to be salvage parts from Whiskey Lake server CPUs. That's the sort of part that they've long used in their HEDT platform, but this time, they're going to bring the dies to their mainstream consumer platform.
I don't have inside information about this. I'm just guessing, so it's likely that I'm wrong. But if that turns out to be right, then you heard it here first.
So why would I claim that? Well, there's some claimed leaks here:
https://videocardz.com/77356/intel-core-i9-9900k-confirmed-to-be-soldered
Some "leaks" are obviously garbage, but those look plausible. What caught my eye is the claim of up to 40 PCI Express lanes. Why would you need so many PCI Express lanes for a die that is primarily intended for laptops, as their mainstream desktop parts are? You wouldn't. But you do need a lot of connectivity for servers.
Intel has already announced that Whiskey Lake server parts will be shipping in Q4 of this year, so the CPUs will be ready about when the next generation Core parts are expected to launch. What I think Intel is going to do is to take Whiskey Lake LCC dies, and when a suitable number of components from them are defective but many of the CPU cores can clock very high, disable an appropriate combination of things and sell it as a 9th gen Core chip.
I expect Whiskey Lake to mostly be a respin of Sky Lake-SP, but doing that on a now very mature 14 nm process node will allow for higher clock speeds. If it's primarily a server part, there won't be an integrated GPU, which frees up some power headroom. That's how they can go from 6 cores to 8 without increasing the TDP and without having to lower the base clock speed much if at all.
Even if I'm right, I don't expect Intel to officially announce it. If the parts launch without having an integrated GPU, that will mean I was probably right, however. And again, you heard it here first.
I don't have inside information about this. I'm just guessing, so it's likely that I'm wrong. But if that turns out to be right, then you heard it here first.
So why would I claim that? Well, there's some claimed leaks here:
https://videocardz.com/77356/intel-core-i9-9900k-confirmed-to-be-soldered
Some "leaks" are obviously garbage, but those look plausible. What caught my eye is the claim of up to 40 PCI Express lanes. Why would you need so many PCI Express lanes for a die that is primarily intended for laptops, as their mainstream desktop parts are? You wouldn't. But you do need a lot of connectivity for servers.
Intel has already announced that Whiskey Lake server parts will be shipping in Q4 of this year, so the CPUs will be ready about when the next generation Core parts are expected to launch. What I think Intel is going to do is to take Whiskey Lake LCC dies, and when a suitable number of components from them are defective but many of the CPU cores can clock very high, disable an appropriate combination of things and sell it as a 9th gen Core chip.
I expect Whiskey Lake to mostly be a respin of Sky Lake-SP, but doing that on a now very mature 14 nm process node will allow for higher clock speeds. If it's primarily a server part, there won't be an integrated GPU, which frees up some power headroom. That's how they can go from 6 cores to 8 without increasing the TDP and without having to lower the base clock speed much if at all.
Even if I'm right, I don't expect Intel to officially announce it. If the parts launch without having an integrated GPU, that will mean I was probably right, however. And again, you heard it here first.
