Intel's third 10nm processor to be called 'Tigerlake'
According to a report from financial website The Motley Fool, Intel is planning to release three processor families at the 10nm node, making it the second node (after 14nm) to feature three product lines rather than two.
The release schedule for Intel's 10nm line currently includes 'Cannonlake', which is expected to be released in 2017, followed by 'Icelake' the year after. The third CPU family is reportedly called 'Tigerlake', which, considering Intel's yearly release schedule, is unsurprisingly set to launch in the second half of 2019.
Intel is hoping to transition back to a two-year, two-product cycle for nodes beyond 10nm, but as developing these manufacturing processes becomes more complex, a short release cycle becomes increasingly more challenging. In any case, the 7nm node (the first beyond 10nm) probably won't launch until 2020, with a transition to 5nm no earlier than 2022.
In the shorter term, Intel's tick-tock release cycle will be postponed (or perhaps even ended) this year with the release of the company's third 14nm CPU: Kaby Lake. We're still several months away from getting any information on Kaby Lake, as there are still some Skylake products to launch, but these processors should start appearing in the second half of the year.