It’s been nearly 40 years since Intel’s first x86 chip, the 8086, hit the market started its slow takeover of the microprocessor industry. If you’ve ever used a computer, you’ve used a processor based on the x86 architecture. To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 8086 chip, rumor has it Intel is planning to roll out a special edition processor with a few tricks up its sleeve.
According to several sources, the 40th anniversary processor will be called the i7-8086K, an unlocked six-core processor with a clock speed of 4.0GHz. Wccftech reports that the chip, if its specs are to be believed, will be among the fastest six-core processors on the market.
“The Core i7-8086K has similar core configuration as the Core i7-8700K. It features six cores, 12 threads and 12 MB of L3 cache. The TDP is maintained at 95 watts which is the same as the Core i7-8700K. The clock speeds are currently the fastest for an Intel 6 core processor,” Wccftech reports.
The processor features a base clock of 4.0GHz with turbo boost speeds up to 5.1GHz. Apparently that’s only using a single core, however. The multi-core boost performance tops out at 4.4GHz without any overclocking.
The performance cited comes from Chinese-language sources which claim to have acquired a sample of the i7-8086K processor, so take the news with a grain of salt. That said, it wouldn’t be the first time Intel has rolled out an anniversary edition of one of its flagship processors — and it wouldn’t be the first time said processor was something a little special.
To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Pentium line, Intel released the Pentium G3258 processor which featured surprisingly robust overclock capabilities as an homage to notoriously overlock-friendly Pentium Celeron chips.
So this is all something Intel has done before. The leaks also suggest fortuitous timing for the proposed i7-8086K. Computex lands on June 8, which would be very close to the actual 40th anniversary of the original x86 processor. Whether or not we’ll see this anniversary edition, or if it’s just an elaborate hoax, remains to be seen, but these leaks definitely make a strong case that Intel could have something special planned.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.