Friday, February 17th 2012
Intel "Lynx Point" 8-series Chipset Detailed, Completely SATA 6 Gb/s
Intel "Lynx Point" 8-series chipset, which will form the foundation of 4th Generation Core processors in the LGA1150 package, codenamed "Haswell", was detailed in a leaked company slide. A slightly older report this week focused on Haswell chips having DirectX 11.1 graphics, and a reorganized display output logic that sees digital display outputs being wired to the processor package, while analog display outputs being routed to the chipset. This chipset talks to the processor's embedded graphics controller over a slightly less functional Flexible Display Interface (FDI).
Lynx Point chipset is a platform controller hub (PCH), much like all the Intel client-platform chipsets released since P55. A crude way to define its function would be to call it a "glorified southbridge", which handles all the connectivity of the system, while lacking the main PCI-Express root complex of the system to which graphics cards are ideally connected, as that's relocated to the CPU package. The PCH does have a narrower 8-lane PCIe hub, but to wire out x1 and x4 expansion slots, and onboard controllers. The Lynx Point chipset connects to the processor primarily over DMI, although the slide doesn't detail the DMI bandwidth. Most likely, it's similar to Cougar Point's 4 GB/s. Lynx Point also lacks a supplementary 4 GB/s PCIe link from the processor that's found on X79 chipset.
Getting into the fine print of its connectivity, we find that the PCH finally has all its SATA connectivity sticking to the SATA revision 3.0 (6 Gb/s), compared to some of its immediate predecessors having some SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and some SATA 3 Gb/s. The PCH having all SATA 6 Gb/s ports is a particularly big revelation, because users of this platform will be able to finally set up complex RAID configurations using SATA 6 Gb/s drives, such as RAID 5, 10, etc., which require more than two physical disks.
This purism doesn't extend to USB, sadly. It still has a combination of USB 3.0 SuperSpeed and USB 2.0 HiSpeed ports in an unknown proportion. All USB 3.0 ports backwards-support USB 2.0 devices, but then not all USB ports from this chipset are USB 3.0. The chipset also lacks a PCI Express 3.0 hub and retains PCI Express 2.0. This bit is significant, because now makers of third-party USB 3.0, Thunderbolt, and SATA 6 Gb/s are encouraged to make PCIe 2.0 x2 controllers instead of waiting to see if chipsets in the foreseeable future have PCIe 3.0, so they could make lower pin-count PCIe 3.0 x1 controllers.
The rest of the connectivity is largely similar, except of course the display output. The PCH now only has to deal with analog display outputs. Gigabit Ethernet MAC, SPI, LPCIO, SMBus and HD Audio are carried forward unchanged. Haswell and Lynx Point are slated for the first half of 2013.
Sources:
Tom's Hardware, Zol.com.cn
Lynx Point chipset is a platform controller hub (PCH), much like all the Intel client-platform chipsets released since P55. A crude way to define its function would be to call it a "glorified southbridge", which handles all the connectivity of the system, while lacking the main PCI-Express root complex of the system to which graphics cards are ideally connected, as that's relocated to the CPU package. The PCH does have a narrower 8-lane PCIe hub, but to wire out x1 and x4 expansion slots, and onboard controllers. The Lynx Point chipset connects to the processor primarily over DMI, although the slide doesn't detail the DMI bandwidth. Most likely, it's similar to Cougar Point's 4 GB/s. Lynx Point also lacks a supplementary 4 GB/s PCIe link from the processor that's found on X79 chipset.
This purism doesn't extend to USB, sadly. It still has a combination of USB 3.0 SuperSpeed and USB 2.0 HiSpeed ports in an unknown proportion. All USB 3.0 ports backwards-support USB 2.0 devices, but then not all USB ports from this chipset are USB 3.0. The chipset also lacks a PCI Express 3.0 hub and retains PCI Express 2.0. This bit is significant, because now makers of third-party USB 3.0, Thunderbolt, and SATA 6 Gb/s are encouraged to make PCIe 2.0 x2 controllers instead of waiting to see if chipsets in the foreseeable future have PCIe 3.0, so they could make lower pin-count PCIe 3.0 x1 controllers.
The rest of the connectivity is largely similar, except of course the display output. The PCH now only has to deal with analog display outputs. Gigabit Ethernet MAC, SPI, LPCIO, SMBus and HD Audio are carried forward unchanged. Haswell and Lynx Point are slated for the first half of 2013.
20 Comments on Intel "Lynx Point" 8-series Chipset Detailed, Completely SATA 6 Gb/s
Seriously. Nobody's putting a gun to your head demanding you to upgrade. This whining about socket change gets old real fast. There are hundreds of reasons why a manufacturer needs to change sockets. If you can't deal with this, then design your own damn processor.
i dont mind the change....
what is bothering me is why are they still using the 65nm tech. if they simply used 22nm like the cpus, the chipset would be 10mm2, 8 times smaller than current 80mm2, and therefore could be integrated in the cpu package for no cost, the cpu being 200mm2 surface area, and now we have to pay 50$ for this old 65nm chipset instead. at best the Lynx looks like 45nm in the photo, old tech.
P.S. improving the processor technology isnt enough one must improve itself over all. Everyone knows that jumping from lga1156 to lga1155 was a bad move as everyone having the 1st gen got pissed. there was no point in changing the socket yet only the chipset could have been the break through BUT I AM INTEL I RULE THE MARKET SO YOU HAVE TO BARE WITH ME.
It's the same with Intel's personnel: when a manager doesn't meet his quota of burn-outs, they sack him for being too soft. Again, the zombies will intone "No one forced them to go work at Intel. If they can't do the job, they should leave." Cluelessness and rabid fanboism.
Nobody is "sucking Intel's corporate dick", and to treat Intel like they are some terrible corporation who has lied and stolen everything is nothing short of naive. They (like everyone) don't necessarily play fair, but if they released garbage products, they wouldn't be leading the industry. The fact is AMD hasn't done anything special since Athlon 64, and that was mostly just because Intel took a chance with Netburst (much like AMD has with BD) and AMD just continued on. If AMD would just release something to the tone of Phenom III, where they improved the IMC, dropped to 32nm (or lower), and managed to scale it up to 8-cores, I think they would crush Intel. But they have sunk so much money into BD it's not a possibility.
As for this chipset, it looks pretty promising. I want to see motherboards supporting new features. How SATA3 and USB3.0 aren't standard yet is beyond me :rolleyes:
This argument is old...If u dont like it dont buy... just that simple. There is a cost for the performance increases that intel provides which usually require a new socket. Their older stuff still hangs quite well though so its usually a win win situation. Those that upgrade every 2 years do so because they want to or/and because they can. not because their hardware is obsolete. Amd-ers who are still using that 8 year old board and wondering why they're in second place?......The answers simple.....They're only 2 companies... if they were more you'd be lower.
Of course, if someone asks me to build a computer, I will ask my customer about it. Some don't really care about graphics performance, while some don't care about the upgrade path... there are even some they don't really care about core-count, or power consumption.
But most of them (not all of them) care about cost. And when someone tells you about the best gaming computer for 299$ it means 299$ and not 350$. So yeah, I have to make the right choice. Also I barely sell used computers, because if that was the case, I could grab a core 2 duo with a discrete graphic card and it will surely beat a llano A8 in gaming.
Bulldozer power consumption is dissapointing, but according to this, things will change in the forthcoming months. in less than 6 months they started to improve the monster.
As for the new revisions, if they don't offer any performance increase, they will just be what AMD should have launched in the first place. Piledriver is their next real chance to offer something of value.
After re-reading, I am disappointed that Intel is still mixing and matching USB and SATA ports. Since both are backwards compatible, there appears to be no logical reason to mix and match the older parts with the newer ones.
With SATA II and III there's also some mixing here and there, depending on mobos model.
I would use USB 2.0 ports for keyboard and mouse, and older pendrives, and 3.0 for hard drives and whatever else. Thinking it that way, its not so bad to add older ports. Except perhaps if the older ports are taking the place of the faster ports. Its a mobo manufacturer thing, they are the ones who decide after all, to take advantage of the chipsets capabilities.
They still manufacture AMD motherboards based on 760 chipset which is in my opinion, very old. But its very cheap also.