Intel Corp. has shipped a new family of business-grade “Kaby Lake” processors.
Officially unveiled last August, Kaby Lake is the latest edition of Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel’s Skylake CPU platform. PCs equipped with the new 7th Gen Intel Core vPro chips introduced today deliver up to a 65 percent improvement in multitasking performance compared to comparable devices produced 5 years ago and up to 10 hours of battery life, according to Tom Garrison, vice president and general manager of Intel’s business client division.
“Workers are much more on the go now,” he observes. “Battery life is important and we’re delivering a big jump in [that].” Together, Garrison continues, the new processors’ power efficiency and performance gains result in up to 50 percent better end user productivity.
Hardware makers will ultimately utilize 7th Gen Intel Core vPro CPUs in over 80 notebook PCs and more than 20 desktops spanning everything from clamshell form factors and 2-in-1s to towers and all-in-ones. According to Garrison, today’s businesses need access to a wide variety of hardware designs in order to attract and retain employees, especially the youngest and most desirable ones.
“You can’t hire the top millennials if you’re not giving them what they perceive to be the technology that will support them and make them successful,” he says.
Intel expects approximately 50 computers bearing 7th Gen Intel Core vPro chips to be available by the end of this month. Roughly 40 more designs will arrive in February and March, followed by another 10 or so in the second quarter of the year.
Garrison points to security and manageability as key strengths for the new Intel processors.
“Business PCs have to be managed and increasingly they have to be the most secure devices out there, because the PC really is the front door to a network,” he says.
On the security front, 7th Gen Intel Core vPro processors come with the first general availability version of Intel Authenticate. Available in preview mode for the last year, Authenticate allows companies to create multifactor authentication processes combining “something you know” (like a four-digit PIN code), “something you have” (like a smartphone), and “something you are” (like a fingerprint). Administrators can customize those procedures for different environments, requiring more factors when users login from a coffee house or airport, for example, than when they connect to the network from their office.
Authenticate is designed to help businesses mitigate identity-related security vulnerabilities, which play a role in over 60 percent of data breaches, according to 2015 data from Verizon Communications Inc. Intel eventually plans to integrate the system with Microsoft‘s Windows Hello authentication technology, which lets users login with fingerprints or facial recognition rather than passwords, to create a single, unified sign-on process.
“This is something that Intel and Microsoft are absolutely committed to,” states Garrison, who says the integration will appear in a future release of the Windows operating system but declined to specify when that software will reach market.
The other major security upgrade in Intel’s new processors is a hardware-based encryption technology named Data Guard. Utilizing Intel’s SGX memory encryption system and Identity Protection Technology, Data Guard embeds decryption keys directly within safeguarded files, ensuring that they remain secure from unauthorized viewers as they move from PCs to USB thumbs drives and the cloud and back again. Trials of Data Guard will begin during the first quarter of 2017, according to Garrison, with general availability to follow later in the year.
7th Gen Intel Core vPro processors also support a new administration capability called Intel Manageability Commander that provides centralized control over Intel’s Active Management Technology. Manageability Commander integrates with third-party management tools such as Microsoft System Center as well.
Intel positions its newest processors as a key part of its ongoing “workplace transformation” initiative, which seeks to help companies meet employee demands for more flexible, collaboration- and mobility-friendly offices. According to Garrison, embracing those demands can help businesses boost job satisfaction and productivity while reducing costs. Indeed, a workplace transformation initiative helped Intel itself lower employee-related expenses at its Santa Clara headquarters from $240 per person per square foot to $150.
“This is real money,” Garrison notes.
