14 DAY TRIAL // Intel said, not that long ago, that it would not release high-performance Skylake central processing units this year, 2015, but a new report seems to contradict that assertion.
A new report reveals that Intel will launch Skylake-S CPUs in the third quarter of 2015, complete with all the new interfaces and controller technologies.
These CPUs will have a TDP (thermal design power) of 95W, which would have suggested medium performance half to a whole decade ago, but is now the level which high-end CPUs work at.
If nothing else, we can definitely attest that processor technology has become much more efficient from an energy consumption standpoint.
The Intel Skylake CPUs
They will have a new architecture built from the ground up on the 14nm manufacturing technology and will be sold as 6th Generation Core i5-6000 and Core i7-6000 parts.
The associated 100-Series Z170/H170 chipsets will be known as Sunrise Point and will include such things as extra PCI Express lanes compared to Z97, and up to 10 USB ports (6 standard right now).
For the mainstream and “entry-level” markets, the H170 will take the spot on the H97, while H110 will replace the H81.
The current-gen B85 small and medium business chipset will be replaced by the B150. As for the Intel vPro / SIPP-ready Q87 and A85, they will make room for the Q170 and Q150.
However, ultimately, the 100 series chipsets won't bring too large an upgrade compared to the 90-line. As has become the norm, the CPUs will experience most of the upgrading.
In addition to the 95W unlocked Skylake-K CPUs, Intel is preparing Skylake-S 65W and 35W mainstream chips with locked multiplier.
We don't have exact names and specifications yet, but some of the on-die technologies did get mentioned by name: Thunderbolt 3.0 (only on Alpine Ridge models), DDR4 memory, SATA Express (not relegated to a third-party controller anymore) and higher IPS all around (instructions per clock). As for the number of cores, there will be versions with six and with eight.
Compatibility
Since the Skylake CPUs will only be compatible with the LGA 1151 socket, which doesn't yet exist, any motherboard you buy for the Broadwell line (LGA 1150) will be incompatible with the next generation.
Quite unfortunate, but something that we have sadly come to expect from the CPU market.
