If you’re expecting to buy laptops with Intel’s next-generation Cannon Lake chips by the end of this year, you may be disappointed.
If you were expecting to buy laptops with Intel’s next-generation Core chips—code-named Cannon Lake—by the end of this year, you may be disappointed.
There’s a chance that shipments of Cannon Lake—Intel’s first on the 10-nanometer production process—may slip into next year.
Intel previously said Cannon Lake would ship by year’s end , but that’s now uncertain.
Whether Cannon Lake shipments will happen before or after Christmas is hard to predict, Venkata Renduchintala, president of Intel’s PC, IoT, and chip design businesses, said earlier this week at an Intel manufacturing event.
“In terms of first shipments, whether it’s before the end of the year, or just after the beginning of [next] year, it’s too close to call,” Renduchintala said.
Intel will still deliver Cannon Lake to PC makers within an appropriate timeframe, and there is no “perturbation in launch trends,” Renduchintala said.
The first Cannon Lake chips will be targeted at low-power laptops and 2-in-1s. PC makers typically need time to test the chips in laptops, so availability of the chips in mainstream PCs may drag into 2018.
Mass production of 10-nm chips will begin in the first half of 2018. Initial production runs of the chips will start in the second half of this year.
So don’t expect Cannon Lake laptops during this year’s holiday season. Instead, users will be able to get PCs with 8th Generation Core processors, which are made on the 14-nm process. PCs now are available with 7th Generation Core processors code-named Kaby Lake.
