Intel 100-series chipset specifications leaked, shows support for PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes

Intel's successor to the 9-series chipset will most likely be called the Intel 100 series and is expected to come out in the Q2 2015 according to Chinese website VR-Zone. The site has leaked out the naming convention and the specifications list of the Intel 100 series chipsets.

The upcoming Intel platform - Broadwell - will be based on the same micro-architecture as the existing Haswell platform, but it will shrink the die-size to 14nm. Intel has already said that Broadwell will work with series 9 chipset. Broadwell is expected to come out before the end of the year. So the 100-series chipset is most likely for the successor of Broadwell - the Skylake platform. Skylake is expected to come out by the second quarter of 2015 which gives the Broadwell a limited run period.

As seen in the chart above, Z170 will replace the Z97 chipset and H170 will replace the H97 chipset. The naming convention is a bit strange considering we are jumping from 8-series, 9-series to 100-series.

The major addition to the 100-series chipset is the addition of PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes, which till 9-series only supported PCIe Gen 2.0 lanes. The Z97 chipset supports eight PCIe Gen 2.0 lanes whereas the Z170 chipset will support 20 PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes. The H170 chipset will support 16 PCIe Gen 3.0 lanes. SATA Express support will be present with all except the H110 chipset.

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Barring the H110 chipset, the rest of the Intel 100 series is expected to come out by Q2 2015. The H110 chipset will release by Q3 2015.