The most interesting NUC data Intel shared was something it wasn't ready to show us yet-it's a brand-new kind of NUC in a redesigned case, and it will offer performance above and beyond even the Core i7 Broadwell NUC Intel released last year. Advertisementįurther Reading Skylake’s graphics architecture: Intel is still gunning for dedicated GPUs The i3 and i5 boxes still come in "short" versions that only fit SSDs and "tall" versions that also fit in an SD card slot and a 2.5-inch bay for SATA SSDs or HDDs, and while the Skylake NUCs are just a bit taller than the Broadwell NUCs, the PCs generally look the same from the outside. The PCs accept DDR4 RAM instead of DDR3, which will speed up memory-dependent tasks as well as the integrated GPU performance, and the chipsets support PCI Express 3.0, which will provide more bandwidth for SSDs (up to four lanes are available). Things change the most on the inside, though even then things are mostly evolutionary. The lids are still interchangeable, and they can connect to a USB header on the motherboard to extend the capabilities of the box. Otherwise input and output is the same: four USB 3.0 ports (two on front, two on back the yellow port on the front can charge devices when the NUC is powered off), a mini DisplayPort 1.2 port, gigabit Ethernet, and an IR receiver and a headphone jack on the front.
Intel has dropped the mini HDMI port on the back of the PC in favor of a full-size HDMI port, and it's added an SD card reader on all models. The i3 versions come with Intel HD 520 graphics, while the i5 boxes have Iris graphics-non-Pro Iris GPUs in the Skylake generation get 64MB of eDRAM cache to help add memory bandwidth, so graphics performance should be quite a bit better than the HD 6000 GPU in the equivalent Broadwell NUC. They still use low-voltage U-series dual-core Core i3-6100U and i5-6260U CPUs like the ones you'd find in Ultrabooks. The basic NUC boxes have been around for four generations now, so their Skylake refresh is predictable.
But in a small meeting this morning, we were able to get more information on less zeitgeist-y but more practical gadgets like the Compute Stick and the NUC mini desktops. Last night, Intel's opening-day CES keynote focused mostly on wearables and Internet of Things things, the sort of forward-facing, maybe-useful, possibly vaporware technology that characterizes CES.