Today, Intel announced its latest eighth-generation vPro U-series processors. The previous ones were from the Kaby Lake R family, which was pretty much like the seventh-generation CPUs but with four cores instead of two.
These are from the Whiskey Lake family, so the new chips are the Core i5-8365U and Core i7-8665U. Designed for mobile workers, they have a focus on built-in hardware security, manageability, and scalability. Intel says that the new CPUs are 65% faster than ones built three years ago from the Skylake family, which were the last to support Windows 7.
The new processors have support for Wi-Fi 6, promising 40% faster Wi-Fi speeds, better WPA3 security, and more reliable managed networks. Networks are four times more scalable, and Intel says that this results in a $300 savings per user.
There's also Intel's new Hardware Shield technology, which is meant to protect the BIOS and lock it down in the event of an attack on the system. Intel says that no additional IT infrastructure is needed, and it allows you to "enforce a more complete security policy".
Both CPUs are quad-core with eight threads and a 15W TDP. The Core i5-8365U has a 1.6GHz base clock speed, a 4.1GHz max clock speed, and a 6MB cache. The Core i7-8665U has a 1.9GHz base clock speed, a 4.8GHz max clock speed, and an 8MB cache.
The first partners to be using the new CPUs are HP, Dell, Lenovo, and Panasonic. In fact, you can expect to see them in the new Lenovo ThinkPad X1 models that were announced at CES.
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