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​Intel's next-gen PC chip works, it's the fastest ever, and it's coming this fall

If you're a video editor or hardcore gamer, you might be excited by Intel's seventh-generation Core chip, code-named Kaby Lake. CEO Brian Krzanich shows it up and running.

Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
Expertise Processors, semiconductors, web browsers, quantum computing, supercomputers, AI, 3D printing, drones, computer science, physics, programming, materials science, USB, UWB, Android, digital photography, science. Credentials
  • Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
Stephen Shankland
Watch this: Intel turns to Overwatch to show off seventh-generation core

The PC industry's glory days, when people snapped up new computers powered by steadily faster chips, are over. But Intel thinks its newest PC processor will get some hearts racing in a few months.

At its Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco on Tuesday, Intel Chief Executive Brian Krzanich showed PCs powered by a seventh-generation Core processor in PCs handling some demanding chores -- editing high-resolution 4K GoPro video and playing a hot new first-person shooter game, Overwatch.

It's "the highest performance CPU Intel has ever built. It'll make rich experiences available to everyone," Krzanich said. "We're shipping seventh-generation Core already to our PC partners and will launch devices to consumers this fall."

The seventh-generation Core processor, code-named Kaby Lake, is the first PC chip to emerge since Intel slowed its "tick-tock" pace of processor development. It previously introduced new chip designs and new manufacturing technology in alternating years, but Kaby Lake just refines an existing design on an existing manufacturing process.

The slower cadence isn't the only trouble for Intel. The steady improvement in processor clock speeds has largely stalled, PC sales are shrinking and consumers have flocked to smartphones powered by other companies' chips. But Krzanich is optimistic about Moore's Law, the observation named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of electronic components on a chip doubles every two years.

"Moore's Law is far from dead," Krzanich said.