Published in PC Hardware

Skylake-S LGA is 35W to 95W TDP part

by on26 August 2014



Desktop speaks DDR4

Skylake-S is the ‘tock’ of the Haswell architecture and despite being delayed from the original plan, this desktop part is scheduled to appear in Q2 2015. Haswell 22nm got a prolonged life via the Haswell refresh generation of processors, as the Broadwell 14nm architecture got delayed by about two quarters.

We managed to get a few details about this upcoming desktop processor. One of the key features is that the general core performance is increased and Skylake-S will end up faster, no surprises there. You cannot expect spectacular gains, as Intel traditionally doesn’t change much when it shifts from one node to a smaller one. A lot of changes can result in potential problems and bugs, to changes tend to be minor. The graphics part will be faster and will support DirectX 12, Open GL 5.x as well as Open CL 2.x. We don’t know if this means that Intel plans to use the full DirectX 12 instruction set or it just means that it will run closer to metal.

The new desktop generation supports both DDR4 and DDR3L memory and we are guessing that manufacturers will have to choose one of the two for their motherboards. The DDR3L needs 1.35V while the DDR4 needs 1.2V and works at faster clocks. Naturally Intel plans to make the new parts overclockable and it plans to have unlocked processor options. It also supports BCLK overclocking but there is no surprise there. Intel will continue to support Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, Hyper-Threading as well as DMI Gen 3.

There will be quad-core and dual-core options. Quad-core Skylake-S will come in 65W and 35W options and the dual-core will come in the same TDP limitations. Enthusiast quad-core parts will need 95W, at least that’s the figure for the first batch. 

You will need a board with an Intel 100 series chipset in order to make it work.

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