Cannon Lake (microprocessor)

Cannon Lake is Intel's codename for the 8th generation of Core processors based on Palm Cove, a 10 nm die shrink of the Kaby Lake microarchitecture. As a die shrink, Palm Cove is a new process in Intel's process-architecture-optimization execution plan as the next step in semiconductor fabrication.^[1] Cannon Lake CPUs are the first mainstream CPUs to include the AVX-512 instruction set.

This article is about the Intel microprocessor. For other uses, see Cannon Lake (disambiguation).

Cannon Lake

General information
Launched	May 15, 2018; 6 years ago (May 15, 2018)
Discontinued	February 28, 2020; 4 years ago (February 28, 2020)
Marketed by	Intel
Common manufacturer	Intel
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate	3.2 GHz
Architecture and classification
Technology node	Intel 10 nm (tri-gate) transistors
Microarchitecture	Palm Cove
Physical specifications
Cores	2
GPU	Factory disabled
Socket	BGA 1440
Products, models, variants
Product code name	CNL
Brand name	Core
History
Predecessors	Mobile: Coffee Lake (2nd optimization) Kaby Lake Refresh (2nd optimization)
Successor	Ice Lake (architecture)
Support status
Legacy support for iGPU

Prior to Cannon Lake's launch, Intel launched another 14 nm process refinement with the codename Coffee Lake.^[2]

The successor of Cannon Lake is Ice Lake, powered by the Sunny Cove microarchitecture, which represents the architecture phase in the process-architecture-optimization model.^[3][4]

Design history and features

Palm Cove

General information
Designed by	Intel
Cache
L1 cache	64 KB per core
L2 cache	256 KB per core
L3 cache	2 MB per core
Architecture and classification
Instruction set	x86-64
Instructions	x86-64, Intel 64
Extensions	MMX, AES-NI, CLMUL, RDRAND, FMA3, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE4, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX, AVX2, AVX-512, SHA,[5] TXT, TSX, SGX, VT-x, VT-d
History
Predecessor	Skylake
Successor	Sunny Cove

Cannon Lake processor die from an i3-8121U with Palm Cove cores

Cannon Lake was initially expected to be released in 2015^[6]/2016, but the release was pushed back to 2018.^[7] Intel demonstrated a laptop with an unknown Cannon Lake CPU at CES 2017^[8][9] and announced that Cannon Lake based products would be available in 2018 at the earliest.

At CES 2018 Intel announced that it had started shipping mobile Cannon Lake CPUs at the end of 2017 and would ramp up production in 2018.^[10][11][12]

On April 26, 2018 in its report on first-quarter 2018 financial results, Intel stated it was currently shipping low-volume 10 nm product and expects 10 nm volume production to shift to 2019.^[13] In July 2018, Intel announced that volume production of Cannon Lake would be delayed yet again, to late Q2 2019.^[14]

The first laptop featuring a Cannon Lake CPU, namely Intel Core i3-8121U, a dual core CPU with Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost but without an integrated GPU, was released in May 2018 in very limited quantities.^[15][16]

On August 16, 2018 Intel announced two new models of NUCs would use the 10 nm Cannon Lake-U i3-8121U CPU.^[17] These models later became more readily available at retail in late November 2018.

On October 28, 2019, Intel announced that it will be discontinuing the i3-8121U and the Cannon Lake-powered Crimson Canyon NUC, with orders being taken till December 27, and shipping till February 28, 2020,^[18][19] making Cannon Lake not only one of the shortest-lived microarchitectures of Intel, but also the shortest-lived 10 nm x86 CPU microarchitecture (with only one CPU model to be released and manufactured for 1.5 years).

In July 2021, Intel announced it would be removing support for Cannon Lake graphics in their Linux kernel driver, effective as of Linux 5.15, as no production Cannon Lake CPUs were shipped with graphics enabled; this removal resulted in a reduction of approximately 1,600 lines of code.^[20][21]

Improvements

• Intel Palm Cove CPU cores
  • AVX-512 instruction set extension
• Intel's first 10 nm process technology

Products

Mobile processors

Cannon Lake-U

Common features:

• Socket: BGA 1440.
• Memory support: DDR4-2400 or LPDDR4-2400 dual channel (maximum supported: 32 GB).
• PCIe support: 16 lanes of Gen3.

Processor branding	Model	Cores (threads)	CPU clock rate		GPU	Smart cache	TDP	cTDP	Price (USD)
			Base	Turbo				Down
Core i3	8121U	2 (4)	2.2 GHz	3.2 GHz	—	4 MB	15 W	—	?

See also

• List of Intel CPU microarchitectures

References

1. Mujtaba, Hassan (June 6, 2014). "Intel's Cannonlake 10nm Microarchitecture is Due For 2016 - Compatible On Union Bay With Union Point PCH". Wccftech. Retrieved September 24, 2014.
2. Carey, Gabe (May 13, 2019). "Intel Coffee Lake release date, news and features". TechRadar. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
3. Bourque, Brad (January 25, 2016). "Intel's Kaby Lake will sneak in before the 10nm process". Digital Trends. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
4. Eassa, Ashraf (January 25, 2016). "What's the Name of Intel's Third 10-Nanometer Chip?". The Motley Fool. Archived from the original on May 18, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2016.
5. Kirsch, Nathan (February 21, 2016). "Intel Cannonlake Added To LLVM's Clang – AVX-512". Legit Reviews. Archived from the original on October 23, 2016. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
6. Shilov, Anton (February 16, 2018). "Intel's 10nm Briefly Appears: Dual Core Cannon Lake in Official Documents". AnandTech. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
7. "Intel confirms tick-tock-shattering Kaby Lake processor as Moore's Law falters". Ars Technica. July 16, 2015. Retrieved April 29, 2017.
8. Pressman, Aaron (January 5, 2017). "Here's How Intel Is Finally Getting Back on Track With Moore's Law". Fortune. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
9. "Intel Kicks Off CES 2017 with VR, Automated Driving, 5G News and Experiences". Intel Newsroom. January 4, 2017. Retrieved February 10, 2017.
10. Cutress, Ian (January 9, 2018). "Intel Mentions 10nm, Briefly". AnandTech. Retrieved January 10, 2018.
11. "Intel Announces 10nm Cannon Lake Is Shipping". Tom's Hardware. January 9, 2018. Retrieved January 10, 2018.
12. AnandTech (January 9, 2018), Intel at CES 2018: 10nm [@8:35], retrieved January 10, 2018
13. "Intel Reports First-Quarter 2018 Financial Results". www.intc.com. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
14. Novet, Jordan; Ell, Kellie (July 26, 2018). "Intel falls on delay of future chip technology". CNBC. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
15. "Cannon Lake stumbles into the market: The IdeaPad 330-15ICN is the first laptop with a 10-nm-CPU". NotebookCheck. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
16. "联想IdeaPad330 八代酷睿I3-8121U游戏性能独显笔记本电脑 超薄本轻薄本办公商务学生本 标配秒杀：4G内存 500G硬盘 2G独显 W10 银色 15.6英寸【图片 价格 品牌 报价】-京东" (in Chinese). May 14, 2018. Archived from the original on May 14, 2018. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
17. Paul, Ian (August 16, 2018). "Intel rolls out NUC mini-PCs with 10nm 'Cannon Lake' CPUs and AMD Radeon graphics". PCWorld. Retrieved December 30, 2018.
18. Liu, Zhiye (October 31, 2019). "Intel discontinues Cannon Lake NUC". Tom's Hardware. Retrieved November 11, 2019.
19. "Product Change Notification Change Notification #: 117226 - 00" (PDF). qdms.intel.com.
20. Larabel, Michael (July 24, 2021). "Intel To Finally Remove Cannon Lake Graphics Support From Their Linux Kernel Driver". Phoronix. Retrieved October 27, 2021.
21. Larabel, Michael (August 11, 2021). "Intel Graphics Driver Queues More DG2 Code For Linux While Removing Cannon Lake". Phoronix. Retrieved October 27, 2021.