SisoftSandra database may show details of Intel Kaby Lake processors
The SisoftSandra database shows details of a number of Intel Kaby Lake processors. One of the chips has four cores, eight threads and a clock speed of 3.6GHz with turbo boost to 4.2GHz. It may be an engineering sample of an i7 for desktops.
The Kaby Lake processor does not have a specific name in the Sisoft database, but given that it is a quad-core with hyperthreading, it is likely that it is a Core i7 processor. The speed is lower than that of the i7-6700K, which has a base speed of 4GHz, but the turbo speed is the same. As with the Skylake chips, there is 8MB L3 cache and 256KB L2 cache per core. Various websites claim that it is the ‘Core i7-7700K’, although there seem to be no direct indications for this.
It is probably an engineering sample, a chip that is not yet final, so the actual speed can still change. It is not expected that the Kaby Lake CPUs will have much higher clock speeds than the current Skylake generation, because they are made on the same 14nm process.
The database also includes a number of Kaby Lake CPUs for laptops or 2-in-1 hybrids. These models are mentioned by name. There is the i7-7500U with two cores and four threads at a speed of 2.7 or 2.9GHz and 4MB L3 cache. Furthermore, a Core m7-7Y75 is mentioned with two cores and four threads and a speed of 1.3 or 1.6GHz. It is also not certain that the clock speeds of these chips are definitive.
According to previous rumors, the Intel Kaby Lake processors will support Optane memory, previously known as 3D XPoint. To make use of this, a motherboard with a new 200-series chipset will also be required. However, the Kaby Lake CPUs will likely fit in current socket-1151 motherboards as well.
After Broadwell and Skylake, Kaby Lake is the third CPU generation Intel produces at 14nm. In March, Intel officially announced that it was abandoning the tick-tock scheme. The tick-tock cadence meant Intel switched to a new chip architecture one year and downsized the manufacturing process the next. Every 2 years, Intel switched to a smaller-nm generation, but that has now become 2.5 to 3 years.