At this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Intel previewed its “Lakefield” processors, which could make their way into a new, even slimmer iMac this spring, as well as upcoming Mac laptops.
The chips feature the first iteration of the company’s Foveros 3D packaging technology. This hybrid CPU architecture enables combining different pieces of IP that might have previously been discrete into a single product with a smaller motherboard footprint, that allows manufacturers more flexibility for thin and light form factor design. Lakefield is expected to be in production this year.
Intel also showcased its Ice Lake mobile PC platform, which brings a new level of integration with Intel’s new Sunny Cove microarchitecture, instruction sets to accelerate AI usage and a graphics engine, and Intel Gen11 graphics to improve graphics performance for richer gaming and content creation experiences.
Intel also announced Project Athena, a program and new set of industry specifications developed to “help usher in a new class of advanced laptops designed to enable new experiences and capitalize on next-generation technologies, including 5G and artificial intelligence.