Roadmap: Intel Releases Broadwell and Skylake for Desktops Simultaneously

According to an updated roadmap from Intel, the two successive chip generations codenamed Broadwell and Skylake for desktop systems will appear simultaneously in the second quarter of 2015. The Broadwell chips will get unlocked multipliers.

Broadwell and Skylake will be available simultaneously for both the premium segment and the mainstream early next year, according to the roadmap that VR-Zone has put online. The Asian version of VR-Zone regularly has internal Intel information in its hands. The Extreme segment of high-end processors will continue to be served by Haswell-E through Q2 2015.

Intel focuses with Broadwell on, among other things, overclockers: the processors for desktop systems get, unlike the first Skylake models, an unlocked multiplier. Overclockable Skylake processors wouldn’t appear until 2016, according to previous reports. It is striking that both platforms will co-exist: Broadwell can be regarded as a 14nm variant of Haswell, while Skylake is also produced at 14nm, but also gets a changed architecture.

Intel expects the first Broadwell processors for tablets and laptops in late 2014 or early 2015. The chipmaker was forced to postpone Broadwell due to problems with 14nm production. Skylake, like Haswell-E, will receive support for ddr4; at Broadwell, only the server chips get this. In addition, Intel combines Skylake with the new lga1151 socket and there will be significant improvements in the GPU area.