TCE: None of that screams process problems...
Yes the Skylake 6700k inventory is low and so is the Core i5 unlocked part. It is unclear why that is the case. It could be that skylake's architecture doesn't yield high frequency parts at the rate Intel wants. But that is not the process technology that is skylake. Bottom line: we will know more after the earnings call in January. It could also be that demand is very good.
IRIS graphics not being widely available doesn't necessarily have anything to do with yield. Both Iris and Iris pro have a branding problem: no one knows wtf they are. And enthusiasts who might, are going to opt for a discrete graphics card. It is the same reason why AMDs strategy of touting their "superior" integrated graphics fails: integrated graphics do not satisfy enthusiasts and general consumers don't care. I am pretty sure the problem is that intels FSEs are not getting design wins because OEMs don't see the demand. And they probably don't want to pay the price premium.
As for Iris Pro: it flat out comes with too much of a premium. Those that care will go discrete, those that don't know, simply don't know why they would need it. The broadwell desktop chip with iris pro is never recomended on enthusiast websites. And it is difficult to find the broadwell iris pro sku in any mainstream units. There will be no desktop version of skylake with Iris pro. Overall I think its a failed experiment. So this was never going to be that prominent. Design wins here are few and far between as well.
Intel has been quiet about Broadwell-E. But again, that probably has little to do with yield. It is a low volume product in consumer. I mean do you know anyone who has bought an Extreme Edition for $1000??? Gamers are better served with Skylake imho. And given that broadwell is not exactly a giant leap over Haswell, it looks like Intel maybe relying on core counts to create excitement if the leaks are true(always a big if). X99 will be the chipset. So not many new platform improvements. But honestly releasing a 10 core consumer processor is sort of nuts.
If you were looking for evidence of bad yields you would look to availability of mainstream laptops. But there are quite a few of those. Lenovo, Dell and Asus have been steadily rolling them out. They are in stock at Best Buy. And it looks like its a way better situation than when broadwell launched. And there are still 14nm broadwell parts out there as well.
So there are spot outages of some chips in desktop. But laptops seem fine. I think the whole yield issue affects costs more than anything. And lets not forget that 22nm was pretty amazing as far as yields. So that is a tough comparison.
