The specs have been released for Intel’s (News - Alert) Skylake silicon, which promises to be a significant improvement in performance (10 percent better by most estimates) over the existing Haswell-based processors. In all, there will be ten Skylake processors, a mix between core i5 and core i7 technology.
Skylake is expected in the fourth quarter, including for Celeron, Pentium, Core M, Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 products.
“On the basis of power consumption, 95 Watt processors will consist of Core i5-6600K and i7-6700K ‘unlocked’ versions; other normal 65 Watt processors will include Core i5-6400, i5-6500, i5-6600, i7-6700; and, finally, the typical low-power 35 Watt versions comprising Core i5-6400T, i5-6500T, i5-6600T and i7-6700T processors,” the outlet said.
As far as speed, the i7-6700K processor will be the rocket of the bunch, offering 4 GHz (and up to 4.2 GHz with Turbo Boost). The Core i5-6600K chip will be fast too, topping out at 3.9 GHz with Turbo Boost (3.5 GHz normally).
As for the 65 Watt editions, they’ll offer between 2.7 GHz-3.4 GHz in terms of frequency, while the Turbo Boost technology can add on 400 MHz – 600 MHz to the range.
“Architectural design optimizations in Skylake should enhance the processor’s overall performance,” ValueWalk noted.
This is important as Intel works to continue to fulfill Moore’s Law, the 50-year-old prediction that processor density will double every two years, leading to performance gains and cost savings over time.
Intel has been very busy on the R&D front. In February it was revealed that Intel’s roadmap was hinging on two pieces of 14-nanometer development: The Broadwell line, and the higher-performing Skylake portfolio. Broadwell is set to dominate the latter part of 2015 with a June release date for desktop silicon (Pentium and Celeron processors for other form factors based on Broadwell were introduced in the first quarter).
Meanwhile, in about 18 months, Intel 10-nanometer processors, codenamed Cannonlake, will start to make their appearance.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson