page_title: Skylake (microarchitecture)
section_title: Features
hierarchical_section_title: Skylake (microarchitecture) / Features
caption_attribution_description: English: Bottom view of an Intel central processing unit Core i7 Skylake type core, model 6700K. LGA 1151 socket, 14 nm process, core frequency 4.00 GHz. Manufactured in Vietnam. Français&#160;: Vue du dessous d'un processeur Intel Core i7 du type Skylake, modèle 6700K. Socket LGA 1151, gravure à 14 nm, fréquence du cœur 4,00 GHz. Fabriqué au Viêt Nam.
context_page_description: Skylake is the codename used by Intel for a processor microarchitecture that was launched in August 2015 succeeding the Broadwell microarchitecture. Skylake is a microarchitecture redesign using the same 14 nm manufacturing process technology as its predecessor, serving as a "tock" in Intel's "tick–tock" manufacturing and design model. According to Intel, the redesign brings greater CPU and GPU performance and reduced power consumption. Skylake CPUs share their microarchitecture with Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake, Cannon Lake, Whiskey Lake, and Comet Lake CPUs.
  Skylake is the last Intel platform on which Windows earlier than Windows 10 will be officially supported by Microsoft, although enthusiast-created modifications exist that allow Windows 8.1 and earlier to continue to receive updates on later platforms.
  Some of the processors based on the Skylake microarchitecture are marketed as "6th-generation Core".
  Intel officially declared end of life and discontinued Skylake LGA 1151 CPUs on March 4, 2019.
context_section_description: Like its predecessor, Broadwell, Skylake is available in five variants, identified by the suffixes "S" (SKL-S), "X" (SKL-X), "H" (SKL-H), "U" (SKL-U), and "Y" (SKL-Y). SKL-S and SKL-X contain overclockable "K" and "X" variants with unlocked multipliers.  The H, U and Y variants are manufactured in ball grid array (BGA) packaging, while the S and X variants are manufactured in land grid array (LGA) packaging using a new socket, LGA 1151 (LGA 2066 for Skylake X). Skylake is used in conjunction with Intel 100 Series chipsets, also known as Sunrise Point.
  The major changes between the Haswell and Skylake architectures include the removal of the fully integrated voltage regulator (FIVR) introduced with Haswell. On the variants that will use a discrete Platform Controller Hub (PCH), Direct Media Interface (DMI) 2.0 is replaced by DMI 3.0, which allows speeds of up to 8 GT/s.
  Skylake's U and Y variants support one DIMM slot per channel, while H and S variants support two DIMM slots per channel.  Skylake's launch and sales lifespan occur at the same time as the ongoing SDRAM market transition, with DDR3 SDRAM memory gradually being replaced by DDR4 memory. Rather than working exclusively with DDR4, the Skylake microarchitecture remains backward compatible by interoperating with both types of memory. Accompanying the microarchitecture's support for both memory standards, a new SO-DIMM type capable of carrying either DDR3 or DDR4 memory chips, called UniDIMM, was also announced.
  Skylake's few P variants have a reduced on-die graphics unit (12 execution units enabled instead of 24 execution units) over their direct counterparts; see the table below. In contrast, with Ivy Bridge CPUs the P suffix was used for CPUs with completely disabled on-die video chipset.
  Other enhancements include Thunderbolt 3.0, SATA Express, Iris Pro graphics with Direct3D feature level 12_1  with up to 128 MB of L4 eDRAM cache on certain SKUs.  The Skylake line of processors retires VGA support, while supporting up to five monitors connected via HDMI 1.4, DisplayPort 1.2 or Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) interfaces. HDMI 2.0 (4K@60 Hz) is only supported on motherboards equipped with Intel's Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt controller.
  The Skylake instruction set changes include Intel MPX (Memory Protection Extensions) and Intel SGX (Software Guard Extensions). Future Xeon variants will also have Advanced Vector Extensions 3.2 ("AVX-512F").
  Skylake-based laptops were predicted to use wireless technology called Rezence for charging, and other wireless technologies for communication with peripherals. Many major PC vendors agreed to use this technology in Skylake-based laptops; however, no laptops were released with the technology as of 2019.
  The integrated GPU of Skylake's S variant supports on Windows DirectX 12 Feature Level 12_1, OpenGL 4.6 with latest Windows 10 driver update (OpenGL 4.5 on Linux) and OpenCL 2.0 standards, as well as some modern hardware video encoding/decoding formats such as VP9 (GPU accelerated decode only), VP8 and HEVC (hardware accelerated 8-bit encode/decode and GPU accelerated 10-bit decode).
  Intel also released unlocked (capable of overclocking) mobile Skylake CPUs.
  Unlike previous generations, Skylake-based Xeon E3 no longer works with a desktop chipset that supports the same socket, and requires either the C232 or the C236 chipset to operate.
caption: Skylake i7-6700K: Bottom view
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