|type=Superscalar

|type 2=Superpipeline

|isa=x86-64

|extension 13=EM64T

|successor=Comet Lake

|successor link=intel/microarchitectures/comet lake

'''Coffee Lake''' ('''CFL''') is a [[microarchitecture]] designed by [[Intel]] as a successor to {{\\|Kaby Lake}} for desktops and high-performance mobile devices. Coffee Lake was introduced in the third quarter of [[2017]] and is manufactured on Intel's mature [[14 nm process]]. Coffee Lake features the first series of mainstream [[hexa-core]] processors from Intel. In [[2018]], Intel refreshed the Coffee Lake lineup to incorporate their first series of mainstream [[octa-core]] processors.

! Core !! Abbrev !! Platform !! Description !! Graphics !! Target

| {{intel|Coffee Lake U|l=core}} || CFL-U || || Ultra-low power|| GT3e || Light notebooks, portable All-in-Ones (AiOs), Minis, and conference room

| {{intel|Coffee Lake H|l=core}} || CFL-H || || High-performance graphics || GT2 || Ultimate mobile performance, mobile workstations

| {{intel|Coffee Lake S|l=core}} || CFL-S || || Mainstream performance || GT2 || Desktop performance to value, AiOs, and minis

| {{intel|Coffee Lake R|l=core}} || CFL-R || || Mainstream performance (Refresh) || GT2 || Desktop performance to value, AiOs, and minis

Intel released Coffee Lake under 6 main brand families:

! rowspan="2" | Logo !! rowspan="2" | Family !! rowspan="2" | Generation !! rowspan="2" | General Description !! colspan="6" | Differentiating Features

| [[File:intel celeron (2015).png|50px|link=intel/celeron]] || {{intel|Celeron}} || 4xxx || Entry-level Budget || [[dual-core|Dual]] || {{tchk|no}} || {{tchk|no}} || {{tchk|no}} || {{tchk|no}} || {{tchk|yes}}

| [[File:intel pentium (2015).png|50px|link=intel/pentium]] || {{intel|Pentium Gold}} || 5xxx || Budget || [[dual-core|Dual]] || {{tchk|yes}} || {{tchk|no}} || {{tchk|no}} || {{tchk|no}} || {{tchk|yes}}

| [[File:core i7 logo (2015).png|50px|link=intel/core_i7]] || {{intel|Core i7}} || 8th/9th Gen || High-end Performance || Hexa || {{tchk|yes}} || {{tchk|yes}} || {{tchk|yes}} || {{tchk|yes}} || {{tchk|no}}

| [[File:core i9 logo (2015).png|50px|link=intel/core_i9]] || {{intel|Core i9}} || 9th Gen || Ultra Performance || [[octa-core|Octa]] || {{tchk|yes}} || {{tchk|yes}} || {{tchk|yes}} || {{tchk|yes}} || {{tchk|no}}

Coffee Lake is manufactured on [[Intel]]'s 3rd generation [[14 nm process]] called "14nm++". The process is the second enhanced version of the first which was used for the {{\\|Broadwell}} microarchitecture (first enhanced version was first used for {{\\|Kaby Lake}}). The various enhancements improve performance without increasing the capacitance (i.e., active power characteristics). 14nm++ allows for +23-24% higher drive current. Intel claims their 14nm++ process provides up to 26% more performance at the same power or 52% less power at the same performance.

Note that while both "14nm" and "14nm+" used the same transistor geometry, the "14nm++" actually uses a more relaxed contacted poly pitch of 84 nm (from previously 70nm). There is no real density change despite this change likely due to various design techniques such as reduced fins where unnecessary.

 

| Interconnect Pitch || 52 nm || 52 nm || 1.00x

{| class="wikitable tc1 tc2 tc3 tc4 tc5"

! Core !! Extended<br>Family !! Family !! Extended<br>Model !! Model !! Stepping

| rowspan="2" | i3-9350KF || 0 || 0x6 || 0x9 || 0xE || 0xB

| colspan="5" | Family 6 Model 158 Stepping 11

| rowspan="2" | 94xx-99xx || 0 || 0x6 || 0x9 || 0xE || 0xC,0xD

| colspan="5" | Family 6 Model 158 Stepping 12,13

While there is no change in pure IPC over Skylake and the actual microarchitecture is largely the same, Intel introduced a number of major architectural changes in Coffee Lake. In addition to improved performance brought by the uplift in [[binning]] as a result of the enhanced process, Coffee Lake also increased the number of cores by 50% (later by 100%), enabling much higher multi-threaded performance. The enhanced manufacturing process should allow Coffee Lake chips to be highly [[overclockable]].

* IPC improvement from larger cache for various workloads, but actual core is unchanged

** {{intel|Union Point|200 Series chipset|l=chipset}} → {{intel|Cannon Point|300 Series chipset|l=chipset}}

*** Integrated {{intel|CNVi|Intel wireless controller}} ([[IEEE 802.11ac]])

** {{intel|Core i3}}

*** [[dual-core]] '''→''' [[quad-core]]

*** 3/4 MiB [[L3]] '''→''' 6/8 MiB [[L3]]

*** Features removed: {{intel|hyper-threading}}

** {{intel|Core i5}}

*** 6 MiB [[L3]] '''→''' 9 MiB [[L3]]

** {{intel|Core i7}}

**** 4 entries; 4-way set associative

The Coffee Lake system on a chip consists of a five major components: CPU [[physical core|cores]], [[last level cache|LLC]], Ring interconnect, {{intel|System Agent}}, and the [[integrated graphics]]. The core architecture in Coffee Lake, like in {{\\|Kaby Lake}}, as not changed from {{\\|Skylake}}. This is also true for the integrated graphics which is identical to the one incorporated in {{\\|Kaby Lake}} and from a platform point of view, the I/O has not changed (supporting up to 3 displays and providing 16 PCIe Gen 3 lanes). Coffee Lake, however, has brought a relatively large change to the overall system architecture by introducing two additional [[physical cores]] into its mainstream processor die. Those two cores also come with up to 2 MiB of LLC slice per core (for up to 4 MiB of additional [[last level cache]]).

Coffee Lake presents the largest change in the system architecture of Intel's mainstream microarchitecture since the introduction of {{\\|sandy_bridge_(client)#System_Architecture|Sandy Bridge}} in [[2011]]. In [[2006]] Intel introduced the first mainstream [[quad-core]] processor, the [[Core 2 Extreme QX6700]] which was based on the {{intel|Kentsfield|l=core}} core. Those initial quad-cores comprised of two separate dies interconnected in a [[multi-chip package]]. A coherent communication link was lacking and the aging [[front-side bus]] was used for as the die-to-die link. This configuration did not change through {{\\|Penryn}} up until the introduction of the Core i7 based on the {{\\|Nehalem}} microarchitecture in [[2008]]. Nehalem leveraged [[Moore's Law]] and Intel's [[45 nm process]] to incorporate all four cores onto a single die along with a large number of changes, particularly enhancing the uncore (now known as the System Agent). The Core i7-980X was also the first hexa-core consumer chip, although it was part of the enthusiast market segment and used a larger die.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[[File:quad to hexa mainstream die areas.svg|thumb|right|die size over time]]

 

 

Intel's rather faithful [[process shrink]] which has resulted in over 2.4x cell-level density improvement had a significant impact on the die size of their mainstream platform which enabled the addition of two more cores and their associated cache slices without sacrificing yield due to a bigger die. In fact, the hexa-core at 149 mm² is still considerably smaller than even the quad-core {{\\|Haswell}}-based chips. The pair of cores with their associated cache slices and the {{intel|ring interconnect}} agent contributed an extra ~25mm².

 

 

 

 

 

In late 2018 Intel introduced a refresh of Coffee Lake which further bumped the core count to eight. The 8-core refresh still yielded a smaller die than Haswell's quad-core, at around 174 mm².  It's worth noting that Coffee Lake is released concurrently with {{\\|Cannon Lake}} which is a [[10 nm]]-based microarchitecture for low-power mobile devices. Due to Intel's faithful [[die shrink]] of roughly x2.7 in density, an identical [[hexa-core]] Coffee Lake die on 10nm would result in a smaller die than any of the [[14 nm]] quad-core dies, possibly even the [[dual-core]] dies as well.

 

<tr><th>Port 4</th><td>Store</td></tr>

Support for three displays via [[HDMI]] 1.4<ref group=graphics>Note that while there is no native HDMI 2.0 support, Intel did provide a somewhat awkward solution using an [[LSPCON]] ([[Level Shifter]]/[[Protocol Converter]]) to drive DP to HDMI 1.4 signal + convert HDMI 1.4 to HDMI 2.0. One such solution is the MegaChips MCDP2800.</ref>, [[DisplayPort]] (DP) 1.2, and [[Embedded DisplayPort]] (eDP) 1.4 interfaces. Coffee Lake's graphics are identical to Kaby Lake and have native [[fixed function]] HEVC/VP9 decoding for 4K playback at 60fps (10-bit) as well as [[fixed function]] HEVC/VP9 encoding for 4K (8-bit).

| {{intel|UHD Graphics 630}} || 12/24 || GT2 || {{intel|Coffee Lake S|S|l=core}} || - || colspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | '''1.0''' || style="text-align: center;" | '''12''' || style="text-align: center;" | '''N/A''' || style="text-align: center;" | '''5.1''' || style="text-align: center;" | '''4.5''' || style="text-align: center;" | '''4.5''' || style="text-align: center;"  colspan="1" | '''2.1''' || style="text-align: center;" | '''2.0'''

Coffee Lake desktop and mobile come in 4, 6, and 8 cores. Each variant has its own die. The major components of the die are:

* ~9.19 mm x ~16.28 mm

* ~149.6 mm² die size

: [[File:coffee lake die (hexa core).png|class=wikichip_ogimage|650px]]

 

 

 

 

: [[File:coffee lake die (octa core).png|800px]]

: [[File:coffee lake die (octa core) (annotated).png|800px]]

File:coffee lake wafer.png|Coffee Lake silicon [[wafer]] with 8th generation core 6-core processor dies.

File:coffee lake r wafer.png|Coffee Lake Refresh silicon [[wafer]] with 9th generation core 8-core processor dies.