Intel Adds New Test Plant To Improve Coffee Lake CPU Supply – Assembled in China Parts Coming

Intel will be opening up an additional manufacturing site for assembly and testing of their new 8th Generation Core series processors in Chengdu, China. This will hopefully help Intel ramp up Coffee Lake processor shipments and get them into the retail channel quicker. Right now all Intel processors are assembled in Malaysia, but that means there will be processors coming from Malaysia and China now. The Country of Origin tag on the side of retail boxed processors will note where the processor was assembled.

In order to ensure a continuous supply of the Intel Core i5-8400 Processor, Intel Core i5-8600K Processor, Intel Core i7-8700 Processor, and Intel Core i7-8700K Processor listed in the “Products Affected” Table below, Intel will be adding an additional manufacturing site for Assembly/Test. The new site is located in Chengdu, China. The new manufacturing site has been certified equivalent (form, fit, function, and reliability) for the affected products and technologies of this change. Due to this change, the “ASSEMBLED IN Country” on the Box Label will now include China.

Intel doesn’t expect customers to notice the change and shipments of upcoming processors will include a mix of material from both sites. It will be interesting to see what overclockers have to say about that in the months and years down the road. Will be solder job and testing be really be identical at both plants?

You can read the official part change documentation here.