Details for the chipset that would feature support for Intel's Skylake processors have been leaked by VR-Zone. The chipset is virtually the same design except a little changes in dimensions but the most important thing to ponder is that Skylake won't be a complete SOC design as previously anticipated.
Intel Skylake PCH Chipset Details Leaked - No SOC Design Till 2015
A SOC (System-on-Chip) is the combination of CPU, GPU and PCH on a single die. Currently, Intel's Haswell is close to a SOC design but still fuses the PCH on the motherboard. Skylake would use a similar setup with the CPU/GPU and few controllers on the die but the PCH would still be fused on the motherboard hence we couldn't call it an SOC either. Broadwell on the other hand which is omitted from the desktop lineup would feature a 14nm die over the Haswell architecture. Broadwell which would only be available in BGA desktop and mobility parts would offer compatibility with the Wildcat Point PCH which are presumably the Z97, H97 chipset we saw last month featuring SATA express support and nothing else new. Broadwell would only be available on desktops as a part of Denlow server platform on LGA 1150 socket.
We don't know what would be the naming scheme for the Skylake PCH but it will also feature SATA Express support along with DDR4 and PCIe 4.0 compatibility. Skylake would release in 2015 for the desktop platform as an upgrade over the Haswell refresh platform which arrives next year for the PC desktop users. The Haswell refresh platform is supposedly 22nm but reports mention that it could be 14nm too but will be compatible with the Z87 chipset on LGA 1150 motherboards. The difference between the Lynx Point and Skylake PCH lies in the Ball pitch and PCB BGA size pads which can be seen below:
Image is courtesy of VR-Zone!
Skylake holds many surprises for consumers but arrives in 2015. It would bring with itself a new microarchitecture based around the 14nm process, feature DDR4, PCIe 4.0, SATA Express and AVX 3.2 instructions. For those who can't wait for Skylake, Intel also plans to launch their HEDT Haswell-E platform by the end of 2014. More can be seen here.
