Always does. May hit 10 physical cores.
Hard to tell, and I doubt so at this stage. If we talk about enthusiast chips, go back to 2011, the i7-990X was a 6 core chip. It was until i7-5960X we see a bump to 8 cores.
The reason is simple - Codename-E chips are different target segment from Codename-EP chips. Ultimately, Codename-E chips are enthusiast chips. Power users who really require that number of cores are the target segment of the EP chips which easily offers you 12-16 cores right now.
E chips seeks a balance between performance in terms of clock speeds and the number of cores offered. The higher the number of cores, the more difficult to overclock the chip. Intel is unable to bump it to 10 cores without finding a way to deliver more power to the chip and at the same time, reduce the heat generated by the cores.
Knowing that it was until last year that Intel was able to offer the top E chip a bump to 8 cores, I don't forsee any 10 cores Skylake-E chips at all. However, mid tier chips like the replacement for 5930K might see a bump to 8 cores,
maybe
