The Intel Core i5-5257U was a mobile processor with 2 cores, launched in March 2015, at an MSRP of $315. It is part of the Core i5 lineup, using the Broadwell-U architecture with BGA 1168. Thanks to Intel Hyper-Threading the core-count is effectively doubled, to 4 threads. Core i5-5257U has 3 MB of L3 cache and operates at 2.7 GHz by default, but can boost up to 3.1 GHz, depending on the workload. Intel is making the Core i5-5257U on a 14 nm production node using 1,900 million transistors. The multiplier is locked on Core i5-5257U, which limits its overclocking potential.
With a TDP of 28 W, the Core i5-5257U consumes only little energy. Intel's processor supports DDR3 memory with a dual-channel interface. The highest officially supported memory speed is 1866 MT/s, but with overclocking (and the right memory modules) you can go even higher. For communication with other components in the system, Core i5-5257U uses a PCI-Express Gen 2 connection. This processor features the Intel Iris 6100 integrated graphics solution.
Hardware virtualization is available on the Core i5-5257U, which greatly improves virtual machine performance. Additionally, IOMMU virtualization (PCI passthrough) is supported, so that guest virtual machines may directly use host hardware. Programs using Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) can run on this processor, boosting performance for calculation-heavy applications. Besides AVX, Intel is including the newer AVX2 standard, too, but not AVX-512.