Intel has finally decided on the launch schedule for its Skylake central processing units, claims a Chinese website. As per the timetable published by the Chinese site, the Skylake chips will hit the market between August and November.
Intel “Skylake” schedule
Intel will unveil its Skylake microprocessors at the Intel Developer Forum (IDC), which is scheduled August 18-20 in San Francisco, Calif. At the event, it is expected that the chip maker will discuss more details of its micro-architecture and reveal PCs powered by its CPUs. Also the chip maker may provide hints about its future CPUs
According the schedule published by BenchLife, desktop Skylake-S chips, including the Core i7-6700K and the Core i5-6600, will be the first to hit the markets. It is expected that the new processors having an unlocked multiplier could be available by August. Later in September, the low-power Core M Skylake-Y, and the high-performance mobile Core i-series Skylake-U and Skylake-H are expected to hit the market.
Also the highest-performing laptop chips and the first Xeon processors for single-socket servers based on Skylake microarchitecture will be available by October or November, as per the schedule. In January, Intel is expected to release an update to its mobile CPU lineups with improved models. As of now, there has been no official information from Intel on the release schedule.
Haswell eating into Broadwell’s market?
Recently, Apple unveiled its 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro and its 27-inch iMacs. Both are powered by Intel’s Haswell processors, which were introduced in 2013 and updated in 2014. Powering the 27-inch iMacs with Haswell was not much of a surprise as the real replacement for the Haswell-based desktop processors, i.e., Skylake, will come later this year. However, many were surprised with Apple’s decision to stick with Haswell processors and not considering the latest Broadwell chips to power its refreshed 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro.
Though for Apple it won’t make much of a difference, a higher-end quad-core Broadwell processor is expected to be unveiled soon. It could have some interesting implications, says a report from The Motley Fool. The 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro and the 21.5-inch iMac are big contributors to Intel’s Iris Pro-based processor shipments. So now with Apple going with Haswell, the market for Broadwell chip with Iris Pro is squeezed. Also there is a good chance that many manufacturers will wait a few months for the unlocked Skylake chips rather than buy Haswell chips now.
