Say it ain’t so: Cannon Lake, Intel’s next generation of Core processors, could arrive later than initially believed, after comments by a company executive suggest delays in development and mass production of the new processor, reports PC World. This could delay the anticipated 32GB MacBook Pro with Touch Bar until 2018.
It’s hard to predict whether Cannon Lake shipments will happen before or after Christmas, Venkata Renduchintala, president of Intel’s PC, IoT, and chip design businesses, said at an Intel manufacturing event. 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, notes PC World.
Instead, users will be able to get computers with Kaby Lake chips. I’m betting that, with the outcry for updated Macs, Apple will release new iMacs and MacBook Pros no later than October with Kaby Lake processors even though Cannon Lake chips are reportedly about 15% faster (I’m less sure about the future of the Mac Pro and Mac mini.)
Meanwhile, JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, which develops standards for the microelectronics industry, has announced that development of the widely-anticipated DDR5 (Double Data Rate 5) and NVDIMM-P Design standards is moving forward rapidly. Publication for both is forecast for … you guessed it … 2018.
JEDEC DDR5 memory will offer improved performance with greater power efficiency as compared to previous generation DRAM technologies. As planned, DDR5 will provide double the bandwidth and density over DDR4, along with delivering improved channel efficiency. These enhancements, combined with a more user-friendly interface for server and client platforms, will enable high performance and improved power management in a wide variety of applications, according to Mian Quddus, Chairman of the JEDEC Board of Directors.
As demand for DRAM capacity and bandwidth continues to grow within systems, Hybrid DIMM technologies such as JEDEC NVDIMM-P will enable new memory solutions optimized for cost, power usage and performance, he adds. Adding to the existing NVDIMM-N JEDEC standards, NVDIMM-P will be a new high capacity persistent memory module for computing systems.
All this may not affect Apple anyway. The tech giant hasn’t even adopted DDR4 RAM; all current Macs are equipped with older DDR3 RAM.
