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

Posted by msmash on from the for-the-record dept.

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?

8 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. Vulnerabilities. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That's what I think of when I think Intel.

  2. You Thought Intel’s ME Was Bad? by mschwanke97402 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So now Intel processors can be back doored directly from the nearest WiFi hot-spot. What could go wrong with that?

  3. "Virtual Assistant" hypetrain? What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why in the name of all that is holy would anyone want "support for" something that far down the application pipeline added to a *CPU*?! Especially in light of the recently very public inability to secure even the most basic aspects of the core CPU.

    It's worth noting that the AT article linked (yes, I read both of them first, for all that it breaks the /. ToS :P) makes no mention of this "support" at all, so I expect (and hope) it's just the non-technical Verge misunderstanding some piece of meaningless PR-speak.

    1. Re:"Virtual Assistant" hypetrain? What? by willy_me · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It is probably the addition of a very low power module to support real-time analysis of audio. Lattice Semiconductor sells such a module based on their iCE40 FPGA which claims to only require 5 mW - Link. This allows you to respond to voice commands without having the CPU fully powered. Apple has developed their own hardware to do something similar in their computers and iPhones.

      The real question is, what else can this Intel module be programmed to do.

  4. Network Card by dohzer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Shouldn't the network card of my PC be handling that?
    If I ever chose to put WiFi in my desktop, that is.
    Not sure why I'd ever want slower internet, but sure, WiFi is an option.

    1. Re:Network Card by jittles · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Shouldn't the network card of my PC be handling that? If I ever chose to put WiFi in my desktop, that is. Not sure why I'd ever want slower internet, but sure, WiFi is an option.

      You do realize that the chips announced yesterday were all Y and U models, right? They *could* go into a desktop but they are generally used for (U)ltra low power devices. That's what the U stands for. The U SKUs usually end up in laptops and the Y SKUs would be used in things like tablets. So there are some serious power savings with this particular change. I do not believe they plan on integrating the WiFi on other SKUs, though I could be wrong. I do not believe these chips have been modified for side-channel attacks, but I can't be certain of that at all at this point.

  5. wifi and assistants? by Karmashock · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This has nothing to do with CPUs.

    First, the wifi is generally provided by the motherboard or an addon comm board... not the processor... and I don't want the processor to have that feature even if it could.

    Second, who the flying fuck cares about these assistants especially when you have a keyboard etc?

    The assistants are superfluous bullshit. I can appreciate them in the car when interacting with your phone. There is some sense to a voice interface in that singular context. But outside of that? Complete garbage. And to suggest you're building in any way the CPU around these shit applications?

    We really need solid alternatives to Intel. The desktop CPU market has been an Intel monopoly for too long.

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  6. The usual first question for any "new features" by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's sad, but this is actually the first question that comes to mind whenever any hard- or software announces new features:

    "Can we turn it off?"

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.