Intel has unveiled the full lineup of its new Skylake processors that will bring better performance, longer battery life and more powerful graphics to desktops, laptops and tablets over the coming months.
The launch comes a month after the first Skylake products were released in the shape of the range-topping Skylake-K desktop processors.
Now the lineup will be filled out by a full roster of mobile and desktop parts, starting with the 4.5W Skylake Y-series, running through the 15W U-series and the 45W H-series and finishing with the 65W desktop Skylake S-series.
The U, H and S-series will be branded variously as Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 while the Y-Series will be branded as a new expanded range of Core M products, with Core M3, M5 and M7 on offer.
Across the range the chief benefits of Skylake over previous generations of processors will be an increase in graphics performance and a reduction in power usage, along with a small boost in CPU performance.
In particular, Intel claims there will be a 40% increase in graphics performance from the Core m5Y71 to the Core m7-6Y75 and a 60% drop in active power usage moving from an i7-4910MQ to an i7-6920HQ. Meanwhile CPU performance improvements will be around 5-10%. Mileage will vary depending on the exact product though.
The company is also making big claims about the overall progress of its processors over the last five years, pointing out that its latest chips mark a 2x increase in productivity while consuming a quarter of the power.
The launch of products based on the Skylake architecture follows relatively shortly after Intel’s previous generation of products, which were codenamed Broadwell (5th generation intel Core). These first arrived with the first Core M products at the the end of 2014 but since then only a handful of Broadwell products have launched.
This was due to Intel having issues moving from its 22nm manufacturing process used in Haswell (4th generation Intel Core) to the new 14nm process that Broadwell and now Skylake (6th generation Intel Core) are based on. Now that production is up to speed Intel is able to launch a full range of Skylake products.
The full lineup will be arriving over the coming months, with many products based on the chips expected to be announced at the IFA 2015 trade show in Berlin.
Next, read more about what powers Intel Skylake in our Skylake-K review
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
