While Intel won't be divulging a great deal of information about their seventh-generation Core processors, codenamed 'Kaby Lake', at Computex this year, the company has confirmed that the line will launch before the end of the year.
Navin Shenoy, General Manager of Intel's Client Computing Group, said on stage at the company's Computex keynote that production of Kaby Lake CPUs would begin by the end of this quarter. Intel also confirmed that Goldmont-based 'Apollo Lake' Atom processors, the successor to Airmont-based 'Cherry Trail' Atoms, will launch by the end of the year.
Both Kaby Lake and Apollo Lake products will be manufactured using a 14nm process, ending Intel's long-running "tick-tock" release cycle. Under Intel's previous biennial process technology cycle, Kaby Lake would have featured a die shrink to 10nm, however due to difficulties with that process node, Kaby Lake will be Intel's third 14nm CPU line.
While the process node won't be changing, Kaby Lake will feature architecture optimizations that are expected to bring performance and efficiency improvements. Intel isn't yet detailing what these improvements will be, so we'll have to wait until later this year before we get any solid information.
Considering what we've seen at Computex so far, it's possible that Intel may structure Kaby Lake's release similar to Broadwell, where Core M products are made available several months before mobile and desktop Core CPUs. Asus' upcoming Transformer 3, for example, features a "Kaby Lake CPU" while the more powerful Transformer 3 Pro is still packing Skylake Core SKUs inside.