Intel’s Skylake is beautiful

There are many superlatives you’ll hear this week about Intel’s new sixth-generation Core (codename Skylake) processors. They are fast and efficient, they can do a whole heap of other things beyond pure computation, and they’re enabling a new generation of thinner and longer-lasting mobile PCs. The one thing you probably won’t hear is how these new chips look — which is fair enough since you’re supposed to use them, not look at them.

Still, there’s an undeniable techno beauty to these chips, which I thought I’d capture for posterity and for kicks out here at IFA in Berlin. Below you’ll find a collection of photos of a real wafer of 14nm Skylake processors, exactly like the ones that will be going into millions of new devices over the coming weeks and months. Well, maybe not exactly. This wafer didn’t adhere to Intel’s perfectionist standards for cleanliness, but it sure was pretty!