As Intel's 8th generation of processors approaches release, leaks are surfacing somewhat often. First seen on Chinese website PCEva, leaked slides show new feature inclusions and specifications.
Matching with previous leaks, up to hexacore processors will be making an appearance in the upcoming generation of Intel CPUs. Suspicions that the same LGA 1151 socket will remain in use also appear true. Although only 24 PCI-e 3.0 lanes are shown, this is in addition to the 16 lanes reserved for use by graphics cards. That's still a little short of the 64 lanes offered by AMD's Threadripper, but Coffee Lake-S is also not meant to be a true enthusiast option.
On a positive note, Coffee Lake-S appears to be on schedule for launch in the third quarter. If history is anything to go by, Intel is likely to launch Coffee Lake and have widespread support from motherboard manufacturers before October.
Coffee Lake-S may be the first series to be a part of the Z370 chipset, followed by a Cannonlake refresh which will add some extra features. Interestingly enough, Cannonlake is labeled as "300 Series," not specifically as a Z370 chipset, so there is a possibility that upgrading from Coffee Lake-S to Cannonlake could prove difficult. USB 3.1 Gen 2, Thunderbolt 3.0 with DisplayPort support and quad-core audio digital signal processing will all be added in the refresh.
The roadmap of chipsets shows Coffee Lake-S extending to mid-year 2018, although as die shrinks become harder to perform, seeing an extended life for the Z370 platform would not be completely out of the question.