Intel rolls out Skylake chips to fuel Microsoft Windows 10 hardware push
But will this new offering from the hardware and software giants reignite interest in an ailing PC market?
Intel is to launch its "6th generation" Skylake processors next week, paving the way for Microsoft's first serious hardware push on the Windows 10 operating system.
Representing the "tock" on Intel's 14 nanometer chip architecture (the "tick" of the company's traditional "tick-tock" principle of shrinking a chip size followed by a new microarchitecture), Skylake promises to "set a new standard" with "new, sleek designs that are thinner than ever" and that start up in as little as half a second, with "up to two and a half times the performance" as well as, curiously, "triple the battery life when compared to the computers many people currently own".
The last statement is of course the finest in marketing-speak, especially if you still have a ZX Spectrum kicking about in the attic. However, the message is clear - as ever, Intel is hoping to push the boundaries of what is considered ‘normal' in an everyday PC, and this campaign could be especially important when it dovetails with Microsoft's launch of Windows 10 last month.
Skylake processors "have been optimized to best run Windows 10, enabling new experiences, removing computing pain points and providing more secure computing," promises Intel, while at the same time saying it will represent a range of processors that are "the most scalable ever for consumers and businesses, enabling the broadest range of designs from the smallest Intel Compute Stick and All-in-One desktops to 2 in 1s, notebooks and the first-ever Intel Xeon processor for mobile workstations".
Intel's senior vice president and general manager of its computing group, Kirk Skaugen, has said Skylake means "there has never been a more exciting time to buy a PC".
It's a good job, because Skylake comes to the market as PCs continue to struggle, with steadily declining shipments on both desktops and laptops year-on-year, as mobile devices take the share.
With little in the way of revolution in the design and implementation of PCs - even devices such as Microsoft's Surface hybrid tablet continue to sell comparatively low numbers - it's perhaps Intel's promise of a "scalable" chip that PC makers may be hoping will spark imaginations.
PCs on sticks in particular seem a novel implementation, removing the need for hardware altogether and only requiring a television and an HDMI port (and usually a power source), but have so far proven underpowered as everyday options. Skylake could seek to change this.
To hedge its bets, though, Intel is also including a mobile "K" SKU specially designed for overclocking, with "even more user control", in the form of a quad-core i5 that it says will offer over 60 per cent improved mobile multitasking. Overclocking to order could be another interesting ingredient in a processor market which demands extra methods of flexibility to start allowing users to be limited less by stringent (and often ancient) rules of technology.
One such rule - Intel's aforementioned "tick-tock" method - is also under threat as the company recently revealed it's going to have to break "tick-tock" for its new processors as Moore's Law is beginning to plateau - it will in fact be too difficult to shrink production to the 10nm process and produce another 14nm processor named Kaby Lake.