After a pair of leaks revealed most of the details about Intel’s upcoming Skylake processor lineup, the company today itself has teased a few of the features of the upcoming processors. While Intel says launch details will be revealed in a couple of weeks, some information was teased during an Intel Developer Forum presentation today, including details about support for 4K displays.
According to PCWorld, Intel’s Skylake CPUs include integrated fixed-function support of 4K video processing, which means that there are dedicated transistors with the sole job of handling 4K playback. Skylake processors will be capable of driving three 4K displays at 60Hz, which is a significant improvement over last year’s Broadwell processors, which could power a single 60Hz 4K display.
Other features of Intel’s Skylake processors include something called EDRAM+, which builds upon Intel’s EDRAM feature that it has been using since 2013. EDRAM+ is capable of caching information for the CPU, whereas previously DRAM only cached for the GPU. This should greatly improve performance across the board for the processors.
The processors also support a new feature called Speed Shift, which is aimed at improving battery life by allowing the CPU to intelligently change its power state. Earlier leaks pegged the Skylake-U chips as offering up to 1.4 hours longer battery life with a 30% increase in battery life across the board.
Intel is expected to officially announce all of the details regarding its Skylake processors within the next two weeks, which means we should see devices begin shipping later this year.
