Although we expected that Intel would unveil its next-gen Coffee Lake CPUs, these first U-series CPUs are based on Kaby Lake Refresh (Kaby Lake-R) architecture and offer a higher number of cores, higher core clock, and the new UHD 620 IGP, which brings support for UHD/4K content.

Intel has already confirmed that its entire range of 8th Generation Core processors will be based on Kaby Lake Refresh, Coffee Lake or Cannon Lake architectures, which means that the generation will span across three architectures and two manufacturing processes, 14nm+/14nm++ for Kaby Lake Refresh and Coffee Lake and 10nm for Cannon Lake-based chips.

When it comes to new 8th Generation Core U-series CPUs, Intel has decided to launch four Core i7 and Core i5 SKUs, offering up to 40 percent performance compared to the 7th Generation Core U-series chips. The entire lineup, which includes Core i5-8250U, Core i5-8350U, Core i7-8550U and Core i7-8650U are quad-core CPUs with enabled Hyper-Threading and Intel UHD 620 IGP.

The Intel UHD 620 IGP appears to be the same as the HD 620, featured with earlier 7th Generation Core CPUs, but according to some details, it does bring 4K/UHD support as well as HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2 support.

According to details provided by the firm, the entire lineup will support Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, Hyper-Threading, Smart Cache, AES-NI, AVX 2.0, Optane Memory Ready, Quick Sync Video, Software Guard Extensions (SGX) as well as Boost, OS and BIOS Guard technologies.

The flagship Core i7-8650U packs 8MB of L3 cache, works at a base frequency of 1.9GHz and 4.2GHz Turbo clocks and has a dual-channel DDR4-2400/LPDDR3-2133 memory support. The Core i7-8550U is pretty much the same except slightly lower 1.8GHz base and 4.0GHz Turbo clocks. Both come with Intel UHD 620 IGP working at up to 1150MHz.

The 8th Generation U-series Core i5 lineup starts with Core i5-8350U, packing 6MB of L3 cache and working at 1.7GHz base and 3.6GHz base and Turbo clocks. The Core i5-8250U also packs 6MB of L3 cache and works at 1.6GHz base and 3.4GHz Turbo clocks.

While it did not provide specific details, Intel did say that the new 8th Generation Core i7/i5 CPUs will have a TDP starting from 15W.

According to Intel, the first devices from OEMs bearing 8th Generation Core U-series CPUs should be available as of next month, while desktop parts should be coming in the fall.