Intel has announced End-of-Life plan for most of its desktop Kaby Lake and remaining Skylake processors. The boxed and tray versions of the chips will be available for interested parties for one more year and then will become history. The move will enable Intel to cut the number of product SKUs it offers to partners and reduce pressure on its factory network, which will help to increase supply of newer products made using various versions of Intel’s 14 nm process technology.
Introduced early in 2017, Intel’s desktop 7th Generation Core processors (Kaby Lake) have been around for nearly three years now. The CPUs certainly served their purpose, but it is time for them to go and Intel recommends its partners to place their final orders on these products by April 24, 2020. The final shipments will be made by October 9, 2020. Some of Intel’s Kaby Lake and Skylake products will be moved to Internet of Things (IoT) status and will be available for a little longer to IoT customers and probably some PC makers as there are still previous-generation motherboards on the market that need to be sold.
Intel’s desktop 6th Generation Core CPUs were launched in 2016 and most of them have been in EOL status for a while. This week, Intel said it would stop taking orders on the remaining desktop Skylake products on April 24, 2020, and will cease their shipments by October 9, 2020.
Winding down production of desktop Skylake and Kaby Lake processors in the next few months will free manufacturing capacities for newer Intel products and will enable the company to increase shipments of newer CPUs, such as 8th and 9th Generation Coffee Lake, that are also made using Intel’s 14 nm fabrication technology.