Monday, November 26th 2012
The processor-motherboard combination as PC enthusiasts know it could end, with Intel LGA1150 processors under the "Haswell" micro-architecture, likely to becoming the last client processors to ship in the retail channel (processor-in-box). Future Intel client processors, codenamed "Broadwell" could ship only in BGA (ball-grid array) packages, with existing motherboard vendors selling their products with processors permanently soldered onto them. The information comes from Japanese PC Watch, which cites sources in the PC industry.
With a compacted socket-processor launch cycle that spans nearly 2 years under the company's "tick-tock" product strategy, the scope for processor updates in the client computing industry might be lower than what it was in the LGA775 days. Perhaps statistics at Intel don't show a sizable proportion of people upgrading processors on existing motherboards, or upgrading motherboards while retaining the processor, rather buying a combination of the two, not to mention the fact that pre-built PCs outsell DIY assembled ones in major markets. With the processor being "tied" to the motherboard, Intel gets room to compact the platform further, combining processor and core logic completely into a single package. It's likely that Intel could still leave processor interchangeability to its HEDT (high-end desktop) platform, which sees processors start at $300, and motherboards at $200.
Source:
X-bit Labs
89 Comments on Is Haswell the Last Interchangeable Intel Client Processor?
BTW, why is Intel talked up so much in this context as if AMD doesn't even exist. I suspect even if this is the case, there's still AMD to capitalize in this segment. But all in all, seriously, WTF. Might as well rename every x86 PC to Apple iSomething.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Tick-Tock#Roadmap Hence the "higher powered Atoms" part. And I did mention Celerons along, didn't I?
In case I'm poorly translating my thoughts, what I'm saying is that Intel might add in another segment between the low power entry level Atoms and the low end Celerons and Pentiums. :rolleyes:
in AMD we trust.
(they seem to be the only ones who listen to what the consumers want)
I only hope Extreme will stay like now and than upgrade later but on Extreme.
If you buy platform for 1000$ and use that 5 years for gaming that is OK.
Intel i7 CPU can hold one or two graphic 4-5 years.
i7-860 is OK and today and next year.
Bad situation is if you buy motherboard together with CPU(example in future) and you get wonderfull overclocker, amazing, one in 1.000 samples...
but little things on motherboard die and you need to change everything and next CPU is crap...
If they decide to leave overclocking...
Slot-1 & Slot-A days will come back as Slot-2 and Slot-B
So what if BGA is here to stay. CPU's can still be placed on CPU PCBs and then mounted onto the Motherboard. That's how Apple did it for years.
Wait ... Maybe Apple is pushing Intel to go this route. :nutkick:
The System-on-a-Chip (SoC) concept is spreading. In the early days of computers, we had specialized discrete cards (sound cards, video cards, etc.) because CPUs weren't powerful enough to do everything expected of a general-purpose machine. CPUs these days are so powerful that things are being dumped onto the CPU. There was a time when discrete sound cards were a necessity for gaming because sound processing ate up a significant amount of CPU cycles. Nowadays, on-board sound is standard because the load is practically trivial for modern CPUs. Graphics follows something similar as well. Of course, the progressive concentration means less choices. Remember the days when motherboards could use both AMD and Intel CPUs? Or when the CPU, GPU, and chipset markets weren't duopolies? They'll likely still have expansion slots for things like TV tuners, RAID cards, and other less general stuff... at least until all that gets slapped onto the CPU as well.
The big question is whether Skylake will follow the Haswell model or the Broadwell model. "Ticks" bring smaller improvements than "tocks" and is mostly just power reduction due to die shrinking. Soldering the die-shrink generation isn't that bad unless you're a chronic upgrader (e.g. going from Sandy to Ivy). But either way, there's always the enthusiast market being absorbed into the server market. With DDR4 RAM debuting on the server variants of Haswell (mainstream doesn't get it until two years later with Skylake), maybe it's time to consider picking up a Haswell Xeon processor or two and brandish the 20+ MB cache e-peen?