Why would intel make Skylake-E, when they could just skip to Kabylake-E?

[unseenmorbidity]

Kabylake is basically a refresh of Skylake with the only real difference is the fabrication process, so why would intel even bother using an inferior process?

 

[Arachnotronic]

Kabylake is basically a refresh of Skylake with the only real difference is the fabrication process, so why would intel even bother using an inferior process?

Skylake-EP is manufactured in 14nm+.

One new bit of information that Intel confirmed at the SC16 press briefing was that Skylake-EP will utilize the 14nm plus process introduced first with Kaby Lake. Intel claimed improvements over the original 14nm process so it is great to see this technology utilized on Skylake-EP.

https://www.servethehome.com/new-intel-xeon-e5-2699a-v4-skylake-ep-details/

 

[unseenmorbidity]

ty. So, will this mean they will skip kabylake-e?

 

[coercitiv]

ty. So, will this mean they will skip kabylake-e?

There's nothing to skip. The parts that make Kaby Lake different from Skylake would not pe present in HEDT anyway. You're just hung up on marketing names.

 

[NTMBK]

ty. So, will this mean they will skip kabylake-e?

Skylake-E is already using a different core to Skylake. It has stuff like AVX-512 units.

 

[unseenmorbidity]

Skylake-E is already using a different core to Skylake. It has stuff like AVX-512 units.

I knew it was slightly different, but that doesn't really answer my question.

What would differentiate Skylake-e and Kabylake-e? Wouldn't they end up being nearly identical CPUs with a nearly identical level of performance?

 

[Arachnotronic]

I knew it was slightly different, but that doesn't really answer my question.

What would differentiate Skylake-e and Kabylake-e? Wouldn't they end up being nearly identical CPUs with a nearly identical level of performance?

Kabylake uses the Skylake core and has a slightly updated media engine. It's built on 14nm+.

Skylake-X/EP/EX are based on the Skylake Server core and are built on 14nm+. Kaby Lake-E would just be Skylake-X.

 

[cytg111]

ty. So, will this mean they will skip kabylake-e?

Kaby brings an improved IGP with 4K-netflix ready DRM to the table. HEDT dont have an IGP so nothing of value is lost.

 

[Lepton87]

The situation is different this time from previous HEDT platforms. Up untill Skylake Intel used idetical cores in both its server and desktop CPUs. All in all Intel had just 4 different cores in all of its products. We all know intel core series and atom but let's not forget about quark and itanium. I even read that Intel still hasn't abandoned itanium completely and a new itanium CPU codenamed Kittson is to be released in 2017. To best explain why there won't be a kabylake-e and why it would only differ in name to skylake-x we should first ask what is kabylake? Kabylake is basically a skylake on 14nm+ with an updated GPU. Skylake-x is already made on 14nm+ proces and it doesn't have an integrated GPU so Intel could just as well call skylake-x a kabylake-e and it would be just as accurate as it is now.

 

[Dave2150]

Skylake-EP is manufactured in 14nm+.

Let's hope not, the 14nm+ process seems a step backwards, despite your own beliefs.

 

[Arachnotronic]

Let's hope not, the 14nm+ process seems a step backwards, despite your own beliefs.

It's measurably not a step backwards in commercially available products.

Kaby Lake on the other hand is more than just a simple rebranding of the Skylake chips. Even though the 14-nm process was basically not changed, the manufacturer was able to optimize it considerably. The results are surprisingly high clocks or a much lower consumption at the same clocks, respectively. Depending on the frequency range, we can see efficiency improvements somewhere between 15 and 25 percent; it remains to be seen whether the lower clocked Core-m/Y-series might be even better. We are also eager to see the quad-core ULV models. They are planned for 2017 and should introduce the biggest performance gains in the 15-Watt segment we have seen for years.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Kaby-Lake-Core-i7-7500U-Review-Skylake-on-Steroids.172692.0.html

It has been confirmed that Skylake-EP is built in 14nm+, which means that Skylake-X will be, too 🙂

 

[IntelUser2000]

Let's hope not, the 14nm+ process seems a step backwards, despite your own beliefs.

All indications are its an improvement. I assume you are referring to the fact that 7700K clocks higher but uses much more power than 6700K.

We are pretty much at limits of CPU technology. Getting that 100-200MHz out will take a lot. The fact that 14nm+ does it at all at that frequency tells me its pretty good. In laptops Kabylake achieves a decent gain with minimal power increase.

 

[LTC8K6]

Let's hope not, the 14nm+ process seems a step backwards, despite your own beliefs.

How in the world can you think it's a step backwards? Even discounting the IGP advances it's clearly a small step forwards, which is exactly what it was always supposed to be.