14 DAY TRIAL // Intel has delayed Broadwell central processing units to late 2014, assuming we don't have to wait until 2015 to see them. Unfortunately, this seems to be indicating a very short product lifespan for the CPUs.
We say this due to the latest report on what will come after Broadwell. Intel already has its roadmap more or less drawn up, and the bare essentials about the next-generation platforms have made their way to the net.
Broadwell will be followed by Skylake, you see, and this won’t happen in 2016 as the current timeline would suggest. Instead, the chips, or at least the chipsets that will support them, the 100 Series, will debut next year.
Rapid technological advancement is always a good thing, but in this case, it also has some rather unfortunate implications in regards to Broadwell.
After all the delays and hype associated with the successors of Haswell, the arrival of Skylake-S chipsets in 2H2015 would mean that Broadwell will only have a product lifespan of about half a year.
This would not be such a big problem if the chipsets designed by Intel for Skylake-ready motherboards could also accept Broadwell units. Unfortunately, this will not be the case. Instead, 100-series chipsets will boast LGA 1151 sockets. Thus, you will need to own an 8-Series or 9-Series mainboard in order to employ a Broadwell Core i3/i5/i7, Pentium or Celeron chip.
We can safely say that it is very fortuitous that 8-Series motherboards can get a BIOS update that enables Broadwell support on them. Not long ago, it was assumed that only 9-Series ones would handle them, which would have been rather damaging, marketing-wise.
That said, the new report also brought along some information about the Skylake's assets. DDR4 in Skylake-S chipsets is a given, since Broadwell will support it as well (at least on the server front), though it will probably not help much during the first year, since DDR4 modules will be too expensive for most.
In addition, 100-series chipsets will possess better WiFi + Bluetooth + WiGig (depending on chipset) wireless technology, an Alpine Ridge thunderbolt controller (40 Gbps), and new LAN.
Finally, a bit about the CPUs themselves: Skylake will come with GT4e graphics, with 48 EUs on GT3e and 24 EUs on GT2 level processors. Being able to draw on DDR4 will be a key asset here. Curiously, though, the Y and U low-power laptop/specialist chips will only support DDR3.
