Intel Corp. has disclosed a number of peculiarities about its next-generation code-named Skylake as well as about products on its base. The new chip will in many ways be revolutionary since it will, just like Prescott processor back in 2004, will introduce support not only of an all-new micro-architecture with new capabilities, but will also bring-in new socket, new memory technology and new I/O bus.
According to a slide from an Intel presentation that leaked to the web (1, 2, 3), Intel microprocessors based on Skylake micro-architecture will support AVX 3.2 instructions, will integrate DDR4 memory controller and will also support PCI Express 4.0 input/output interface with at least 16GT/s transfer speed. The chips are expected to be made using 14nm process technology, so it is logical to expect desktop versions in 2015 and dual-socket server versions in 2016.
While the slide covers feature-set and performance of Intel products aimed at high-performance computing market, typically Intel releases HPC-oriented Intel Xeon products a little less than a year after desktop versions of its new products. Therefore, if Skylake-based Xeon E5-series are due in 2016, then expect mainstream desktop products to arrive in calendar 2015.
Since Intel decided not to release code-named Broadwell microprocessors for mainstream desktops in 2014, the Skylake-based central processing units will bring several major revolutions to the segment in 2015.
When it comes to performance, the new processors will support new AVX 3.2 instructions, which will bring additional speed in optimized programs; furthermore, the new chips are likely to feature certain AMD HSA-like functionality (e.g. unified memory addressing), which will simplify usage of integrated graphics engine for general-purpose apps. Platform-wise, the new processors will introduce DDR4 memory, PCI Express 4.0 as well as all-new processor socket to the desktop; furthermore, the platform could speed up SATA Express interconnection for storage devices that will first emerge on Intel 9-series chipsets due in 2013.
Intel did not comment on the news-story.