Why is the 8th Gen i9 named 7980XE?

[darylprater]

Intel Core i9-7980XE Skylake X
The first number is the naming scheme is the generation. So 7980 would mean 7 gen.


Intel Core i9-9900K Coffee Lake
Then 9900k would mean 9th gen which doesn't even exist yet.

Both of these are 8th gen chips. So shouldn't they both start with the number 8?

 

[bignastyid]

Skylake x is a different platform and as such has it's own model number scheme.

9th gen(the 9000 series) is a Coffee lake refresh.

 

[k1114]

Generation number is marketing and has nothing to do with architecture because of all these optimizations and really 6-9th gens are all the same skylake arch. HEDT has always been a "generation" ahead but the same arch. The 7980xe is not 8th gen, it's skylake which is mainstream 6th gen, 6800k is broadwell mainstream 5th gen, 5960x is haswell mainstream 4th gen, etc. The 9980xe is also still skylake, mainstream 6th gen. 8th gen also had a limited release cannon lake in it's lineup, as well as kaby and coffee lake, so 3 different "architectures" in a single generation (5 if you want to count whiskey and amber lake).

9th gen cpus are already out and you can buy them so they do exist.