Intel plans 28-core Core i9 CPU to take on AMD's Threadripper

Battle over high-end workstation CPUs to heat up

Intel is working on a 28-core Core i9 CPU, the company has revealed today at the Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan.

During the keynote, Gregory Bryant, general manager of the Client Computing Group at Intel, also showed off Intel's Core i7-8086K limited edition 5GHz CPU, intended to celebrate 40 years since the launch of the original 8086.

And Intel will be giving away 8,086 of the Core i7 microprocessors in a competition on Thursday, with residents in the UK among those invited to take part.

The 28-core Core i9 is intended to wrest the initiative in high-end workstation CPUs from AMD, following the success of its Threadripper line-up.

AMD's current top-of-the-range Threadripper is the 1950X, offering 16 cores and 32 threads for around £800.

However, Intels' competing products, rushed out after AMD revealed Threadripper last year, are around twice the price.

As an indication of how much the 28-core Core i9 will cost: The company's current top-of-the-line 18-core Core i9-7980XE Extreme Edition is priced at £1,649.99, and it's therefore unlikely to cost less than that.

A firmer proposition, though, was the announcement of the well-trailed anniversary Core i7-8086K part, designed and named to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the Intel 8086 CPU, released this week in 1978.

A slightly redesigned (and, hence, cheaper) 8088 part was used by IBM in the first PC, while the 8086 went into later PCs as prices fell.

The 6-core, 12-thread Core i7-8086K has been built on Intel's 14nm process and offers a base frequency of 4GHz and a ‘turbo' frequency of 5GHz. The part has a TDP (thermal design power) of 95 watts. The full technical specifications can be found on Intel's website.

The ‘K' suffix indicates that it should be overclockable, which means it will be shipped without a stock cooler, and Intel hasn't released price details yet.

However, anyone who would like to win one rather than pay for it can enter Intel's birthday sweepstakes. The company will be giving away 8,086 Core i7-8086K CPUs - but only if you live in the US, Canada (but not Quebec), France, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and China (but not Hong Kong) - and the UK.

The competition will be opening on Thursday and will only run for 24 hours.

Edited, 6 June 2018: Intel's 8086 wasn't the world's first 16-bit CPU, although it was arguably the most commercially successful