What's more, using Intel's Foveros 3D chip stacking technology, multiple copies of the platform can be sandwiched together without bloating Lakefield's overall footprint. It was shown off on-stage, appearing no bigger than your standard chocolate bar, alongside two prototype systems that demonstrate it's fit for devices from smaller tablets to regular-sized laptops.

That's as much as Intel revealed on stage, but we certainly know more about Lakefield than we do another clandestine Intel scheme, known as "Project Athena." Intel described this initiative as similar to the industry-wide Ultrabook push of many moons ago. The first Project Athena laptops, from partners such as Acer, Asus, Dell, Google, HP, Innolux, Lenovo, Microsoft, Samsung and Sharp, are expected to be available later this year. Intel is being a tad vague about what it will take to qualify as a Project Athena machine, but the general rule is they will offer excellent design, performance, battery life, connectivity, and play nice with emerging technologies like AI and 5G.