Intel's Latest 8th-Gen Core Processors Focus on Improving Wi-Fi Speeds (theverge.com)

IFA 2018 is here, and to go along with the wealth of new laptops that will presumably be announced over the next few days, Intel is taking the wraps off its latest 8th-Gen processors. There are three new Whiskey Lake U-series chips (Intel's midrange line for laptops), and, for the first time, there are three 8th-Gen Amber Lake Y-series processors. From a report: While Intel is still using the same underlying architecture as its previous processors -- making these new chips ostensibly an "8.5-Gen" lineup, at least where the U-series models are concerned -- the big change that the company is highlighting is integrated gigabit Wi-Fi support. Intel promises that this should result in dramatically faster internet speeds, especially apparent on the cheaper, midrange laptops that may not have been able to offer those kinds of speeds before. Also being added to the new Y-series and U-series chips is built-in support for virtual assistants like Cortana and Alexa. So you should expect to see the digital assistants cropping up on more laptops in the near future. Further reading: Intel Launches Whiskey Lake-U and Amber Lake-Y: New MacBook CPUs?

Comments

Mmmmmm whiskey

[renegadesx]

I really dont trust Intel to build secure chips anymore, but god damn the name "whiskey lake" is incredibly intoxicating.

Re:Mmmmmm whiskey

[Anonymous Coward]

There are a couple of dozen chip foundries in the U.S. at least. Intel has several in Oregon and Arizona as far as I know.

In other words, some people would rather buy a product that's known to be insecure, because some asshats have convinced them that other nations are the enemy and are out to get them. Meanwhile, legitimate bad actors will pwn your machine because you've got a bad CPU in it with some known, and potentially more unknown security issues. Remember, not too long ago, the Foreshadow issue was unknown too. Imagine what surprises Intel will have for us the years ahead.

Because the one thing I look for in a CPU

[rsilvergun]

is improved WiFi? Seriously, I know we're at the end of Moore's law and all but come on. My work laptop is dog slow with a clean load of Windows. Maybe do something about that first please?

Re: Because the one thing I look for in a CPU

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny you should say that. Thanks to all the mitigations, both this years and last years CPU is slower than last years CPU!

Re:Because the one thing I look for in a CPU

[Tough Love]

My work laptop is dog slow with a clean load of Windows. Maybe do something about that first please?

Do something about it yourself, install Linux.

Re:Because the one thing I look for in a CPU

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

On his work laptop.

If he's working in a Windows shop, that's not going to work the way you think it is.

Re: Integrated ethernet, wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Gotta exfiltrate that data somehow. It's like Intel have made it a design goal to have the least secure CPU ever.

Weird priorities

[DrYak]

AMD: we will try to make upcoming Zen 2 architecture more spectre-proof (not that there that many of the various spectre vulnerabilities that affect us, but still)

Intel: with 8th Gen Core architecture, we will make your Wifi a tiny bit faster, and make the various "voice assistant" devices even more efficient at spying on you.
(Forget about the ~20 and still growing list of spectre vulnerabilities affecting our chips, look at the shiny trendy instead !)

huh... what ?

Re:Network Card

[Anonymous Coward]

Shouldn't the network card of my PC be handling that?

Not if Intel wants to update your CPU microcode whenever you venture into a WiFi network under their control. This allows ad-hoc networking of Intel CPUs completely invisible to users, debuggers, and even hardware. You could infiltrate a complete corporate's hardware base by coming into WiFi range without needing to go through their rooters, firewalls, or cables. Including computers purposely quarantained from the network.

Re:The usual first question for any "new features"

[Opportunist]

I blame it on the fucking tick-box-counting idiots. The kind of customer that has no idea what he wants or needs but looks at the cute little "informative" cards next to a product where you can see a bunch of tick boxes with some label, a label the idea of which they also don't grasp. But the tick box is ticked, so the product is "better" than the other product next to it where that tick box isn't ticked. What tick box? No idea. Do they need that feature? Need? They don't even know what the feature does! But it has the feature, so it's better.

When Homer said "you should have taken an existing product and add a clock to it", he was pretty much predicting what we're heading for. Appliances that get more and more useless gimmicks nobody wants, needs or even knows what it's good for.