Preliminary Skylake Mobile SKU Lineup

[Sweepr]

[...] Skylake "Y" processors will retain "Core M" branding, that was introduced last month, and will have 2 Hyper-Threaded CPU cores and GT2 graphics. One SKU will have 4 MB L3 cache and Vpro features, whereas several other chips will come with smaller 3MB L3 cache, and they will lack Vpro. All Core M parts will support Turbo Boost technology.

"U" series will utilize familiar Core, Pentium and Celeron branding. The SoCs are going to have 2 CPU cores, and will be available with 15 Watt and 28 Watt TDP. Core i5 and Core i7 15 Watt models will incorporate 3 MB and 4 MB L3 cache respectively. Both i5 and i7 chips will integrate GT2 or GT3e GPU, and support Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost technologies. Some SKUs will have Vpro features enabled. The only graphics option on Core i5s, rated at 28 Watt TDP, will be GT3e. Core i7s 28W chips will have GT3 graphics unit only. Standard features on Core i3 15 Watt microprocessors will be GT2 graphics and 3MB cache, while the GPU on Core i3 28W parts will be upgraded to GT3e. Pentium and Celeron processors will not support Hyper-Threading, their GPU will be dowgraded to GT1, and the size of L3 cache will be reduced to 2MB.

Core i5 and i7 "H" CPUs is going to have 4 cores and 45 Watt Thermal Design Power. Some models will support configurable TDP of 35 Watt. Some SKUs will also have Vpro feature available. New in Skylake "H" series will be Core i3 dual-core processor or processors. They will have GT2 GPU and 35 Watt TDP.

www.cpu-world.com/news_2014/2014100901_Preliminary_Skylake_mobile_SKU_lineup.html

Skylake-Y, ''Core-M'' (4W TDP): 2C/4T+GT2

Skylake-U Celeron/Pentium/Core (15W TDP):
- Core i3: dual-core, GT2 graphics
- Core i5/i7: 2C/4T, GT2 or GT3e graphics

Skylake-U (28W TDP):
- Core i3: dual-core+GT3e graphics
- Core i5: 2C/4T+GT3e
- Core i7: 2C/4T+GT3(e?)

Skylake-H (45W TDP, cTDP 35W selected models):
- Core i5/i7: quad-cores
- Core i3 (35W TDP): dual-cores+GT2 graphics

GT3e will finally make its way to 15W ''U'' chips and GT4e will likely be introduced in 47-57W models. Late 2015/2016 Macbook Air could pack Iris Pro and a Retina screen.

 

[Burpo]

Thanks Sweepr.. No GT3e for i7, only i5 & i3? That seems strange..

 

[Techhog]

Mobile quad-core i5s with hyperthreading. I wonder what this will mean for desktop?

 

[Nothingness]

No mention of AVX-512, which might (or not ) confirm it will indeed only be for Skylake Xeon (on top of Phi of course).

 

[witeken]

Thanks Sweepr.. No GT3e for i7, only i5 & i3? That seems strange..

.?

Both i5 and i7 chips will integrate GT2 or GT3e GPU

 

[Homeles]

Mobile quad-core i5s with hyperthreading. I wonder what this will mean for desktop?

Only dual core i5s get HT. I think Sweepr made a mistake.

 

[witeken]

No mention of AVX-512, which might (or not ) confirm it will indeed only be for Skylake Xeon (on top of Phi of course).

Because it's about the SKUs, not the architecture.

 

[Sweepr]

Only dual core i5s get HT. I think Sweepr made a mistake.

Indeed, they only mention quad-core 45W ''H'' models. HT is my mistake (quad-core Core i7 models should have it, Core i5 might not). Good news is Core i5 will finally get quad-core treatment, right now 45W Haswell Core i5s are still dual-cores with HT.

 

[Nothingness]

Because it's about the SKUs, not the architecture.

You're right

Do you happen to have information that show that AVX-512 will be on non Xeon Skylake? I'm really interested because every official Intel source I could find specifically mentions Xeon.

Examples:
https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/avx-512-instructions

Intel AVX-512 will be first implemented in the future Intel® Xeon Phi™ processor and coprocessor known by the code name Knights Landing, and will also be supported by some future Xeon processors scheduled to be introduced after Knights Landing.

https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/cauldron20...AVX-512_Vector_ISA_Kirill_Yukhin_20140711.pdf
which I previously linked.

 

[TechFan1]

http://www.kitguru.net/components/c...lake-chips-to-feature-tens-of-models-in-2015/

 

[Nothingness]

http://www.kitguru.net/components/c...lake-chips-to-feature-tens-of-models-in-2015/

Sorry, it's not an official source In particular it's funny to see them talk about AVX 3.2, while the official name has been known for more than a year and it's AVX-512.

 

[Burpo]

.?

Both i5 and i7 chips will integrate GT2 or GT3e GPU

" The only graphics option on Core i5s, rated at 28 Watt TDP, will be GT3e. Core i7s 28W chips will have GT3 graphics unit only. Standard features on Core i3 15 Watt microprocessors will be GT2 graphics and 3MB cache, while the GPU on Core i3 28W parts will be upgraded to GT3e. "

Sure looks like 28 watt i5 & i3, but not i7 here..

 

[Homeles]

You're right

Do you happen to have information that show that AVX-512 will be on non Xeon Skylake? I'm really interested because every official Intel source I could find specifically mentions Xeon.

Examples:
https://software.intel.com/en-us/blogs/2013/avx-512-instructions
https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/cauldron20...AVX-512_Vector_ISA_Kirill_Yukhin_20140711.pdf
which I previously linked.

Well, it's obviously too early to tell, but I think they were just specifically seeking out Xeon customers to relay that information to, and simply don't comment on their Core line. I'd be willing to wager that it'll be enabled on at least some of the consumers SKUs, particularly because a 256-bit vector unit sitting there unused is a huge waste of space. The AVX unit on Haswell is something like 20% of the core's area.

 

[mikk]

AVX-512 is not important for consumers anyway. There are no productive apps which really make use of AVX2 I'm aware of, so why is there a need for AVX-512 on consumer Skylake. AVX2 would be enough for a big leap, problem is there is no software.

 

[jpiniero]

The AVX unit on Haswell is something like 20% of the core's area.

Considering the GPU might take up 50% or more of the entire die it's probably not that big of a deal.

 

[Techhog]

Only dual core i5s get HT. I think Sweepr made a mistake.

The fact that there will be quad-core mobile i5s at all is amazing... Too good to be true... probably a mistake.

 

[Nothingness]

AVX-512 is not important for consumers anyway. There are no productive apps which really make use of AVX2 I'm aware of, so why is there a need for AVX-512 on consumer Skylake. AVX2 would be enough for a big leap, problem is there is no software.

That's exactly what I think and why I first thought Intel was crazy to add such a big unit for consumer CPU that early. Without counting renaming we are talking of 32x512=16KB! And if the renaming is as aggressive as on Haswell we're talking of 144x512=72KB. No need to say this surely has an impact on place and route even when not used

OTOH AVX-512 seems to come with nice stuff to help vectorization, so it might be more useful than AVX2. What bothers me is that it looks like there will be many variants of AVX-512 as if we didn't already have enough ISA fragmentation

 

[witeken]

Intel was hyping Skylake quite a lot at IDF, so why not? Haswell has AVX2 as well, so AVX3.2 is a logical successor.

 

[Homeles]

AVX-512 is not important for consumers anyway. There are no productive apps which really make use of AVX2 I'm aware of, so why is there a need for AVX-512 on consumer Skylake. AVX2 would be enough for a big leap, problem is there is no software.

Sure, but that doesn't mean it should be disabled.

 

[jpiniero]

The fact that there will be quad-core mobile i5s at all is amazing... Too good to be true... probably a mistake.

Intel could raise prices you know. Presumably most Skylake laptops will be the U models so it's not something most will encounter.

 

[Techhog]

Intel could raise prices you know. Presumably most Skylake laptops will be the U models so it's not something most will encounter.

True. :/ I wonder if there will ever be 20W quad cores at low clockspeeds or something like that.

 

[Fjodor2001]

Is AVX-512 the major news with Skylake? I'm quite in the dark as to what is the big improvements Skylake will bring except for that. IDF 2014 did not reveal much details either.

 

[witeken]

Is AVX-512 the major news with Skylake? I'm quite in the dark as to what is the big improvements Skylake will bring except for that. IDF 2014 did not reveal much details either.

Who knows? Intel hasn't revealed anything. It will have Gen9 graphics, GT4, updated architecture, focus on wireless.

 

[Fjodor2001]

I just found this:

http://www.kitguru.net/components/c...lake-chips-to-feature-tens-of-models-in-2015/

Central processing units based on Intel’s Skylake micro-architecture are expected to feature considerably improved graphics, a bunch of special-purpose accelerators (e.g., HEVC and VP9 hardware decoders) and support such technologies as AVX 3.2 (512-bit instructions), SHA extensions (SHA-1 and SHA-256, secure hash algorithms), MPX (memory protection extensions), ADX (multi-precision add-carry instruction extensions) and other innovations.

The next-gen Skylake client platform due in 2015 will also be accompanied with numerous connectivity and I/O options, such as Snowfield Peak (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth), Douglas Peak (WiGig, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth), Pine Peak (WiGig), Alpine Ridge (Thunderbolt 3.0 with 40Gb/s transfer rate), Jacksonville Ethernet, next-generation XMM726x-series WWAN 4G/LTE modem and so on. Mobile platforms based on Skylake will support Rezence wireless charging.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Is AVX-512 the major news with Skylake? I'm quite in the dark as to what is the big improvements Skylake will bring except for that. IDF 2014 did not reveal much details either.

To add to what has already been said, it is my understanding that SkyLake will include the first generation of Intel iGPUs that will be genuinely useful for GPGPU acceleration of various sorts. Think of it as Intel's potential answer to AMD's APUs. My guess is that the first software solutions to really take advantage of this feature will be anything DX12 compliant, but there's no telling what else could happen here.