Intel Previews Sustainable Modular PC Design Concept

[T0@st]

Intel's Platform Engineering and Client Segments groups are actively looking into ways of reducing computer e-waste, and (in parallel) enhance product repairability. The company's newly proposed "Modular PC Design" is set to take a "sustainable approach" across three key modularity levels: factory, field and user. Team Blue's blog post goes into great detail about revised laptop and mini-PC designs—with the "right-to-repair" movement serving as a major influence. Many "consumer activists and environmental groups" have advocated for improvements in personal computer design—Intel appears to be listening, but a firm release timeline has not been set.

Intel's proposed new standards will revolve around repairability and upgradability—as explained in their blog: "the right-to-repair emphasizes the importance of being able to fix and upgrade PCs on one's own. Improving repairability requires fundamental changes starting from the design methodology." Team Blue's Modular PC program—for laptops—breaks away from the tradition of utilizing an "all-in-one motherboard." A reference diagram shows off three internal modules: a motherboard package and two "universal" left and right I/O units. These separate boards can be: "utilized across various platforms or market segments leads to cost savings by streamlining the duration of the design cycle and minimizing the engineering investment required. The I/O boards for Premium Modular designs are engineered to be common between the fan-less Thin & Light system, which operates within a 10 W power envelope, and the premium fanned designs, which function within a 20 W (single fan) and 30 W (dual fan, Wi-Fi only SKU) power envelope." Framework recently celebrated its fifth year of operation—its modular laptop designs have seemingly "inspired" a few copycats.




Intel's proposed "Desktop Modular PC Architecture" focuses on compact form factor premium creator and entry-level workstation market segments. Many "traditional" mini-PC systems are inherently difficult to upgrade and/or repair, due to components being soldered onto logic boards. Again, Team Blue's proposed solution compartmentalizes the fundamentals into separate pieces: CPU module, GPU module, and Platform Controller Hub (PCH) module. Their blog boasts this concept: "elevating modularity to the next level by introducing subsystem-level replaceable modules, such as a Type-C connector on an FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) and a Type-C connector on an M.2 PCB. These modules significantly reduce repair costs and simplify the repair process in the event of port or connector damage at the end-user level."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[TheLostSwede]

This looks like COM Express for consumer hardware.

COM Express - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[TristanX]

For start let they reduce socket changes. ARL could be easily linked to LGA 1700.

 

[Timbaloo]

*Apple has left the chat*

 

[Random_User]

Not to trying to look smart. But nothing new to be honest. Intel was showing such concepts before. Not much of them cam to the fruition, outside the enterprise. There was also the 'Element’ concept.

This looks like COM Express for consumer hardware.

COM Express - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It's still there

For start ley they reduce socket changes. ARL could be easily linked to LGA 1700.

They could design a better more rigid, reliable socket, with more pins, required for future CPU µarch from the get-go. It's not like they did not know about their future chips, which they develop years before they appear in production. But they went with the planned obsolescence, for a somewhat failed architecture, that Raptor lake was.

 

[trsttte]

Not to trying to look smart. But nothing new to be honest. Intel was showing such concepts before. Not much of them cam to the fruition, outside the enterprise. There was also the 'Element’ concept.

They even did a laptop using those modules that I'd only call concept because I never saw it available anywhere or any reviews

https://cdn.cs.1worldsync.com/a6/84/a6849cd1-ad7c-4286-8536-34d5178cb0a9.pdf

 

[eidairaman1]

Intel tried pulling this with btx, atx is modular...

 

[bonehead123]

If only ya'll could see my face right now, you'd know how utterly skeptical I am about this "product" ever coming to market.....

 

[phanbuey]

i mean if it did I would get one but you're right... not gluing everything to the case means you don't have to buy a new laptop every 3-5 years.

 

[Icearcher]

This looks suspiciously like what framework already do, even down to the little expansion card and replaceable motherboard. Except Framework look to be doing it better.

Also, why is there are person working on two delidded HDDs, theres nothing in there to service and if you doing data recovery, wheres the clean room?

 

[R0H1T]

But they went with the planned obsolescence, for a somewhat failed architecture, that Raptor lake was.

You mean for the last 15 odd years, or did you forget all the forced socket changes over that time?

 

[TheLostSwede]

It's still there

I'm aware that the standard is still around, but it was never intended for consumer applications.

Intel tried pulling this with btx, atx is modular...

No, BTX was just a changed layout compared to ATX, there was nothing inherently modular with it, except if you got a mini/micro BTX board, it was possible to extend the PCI/PCIe slots with an extension board to get more slots. This is not that, this is much more advanced.
Jetway has some motherboards you can add extra slots to, similar to the way BTX was designed.

Also, why is there are person working on two delidded HDDs, theres nothing in there to service and if you doing data recovery, wheres the clean room?

I was waiting for this comment.

 

[Vya Domus]

Realistically this stuff ain't ever gonna happen, OEMs have a far stronger incentive to sell you another 1000$ laptop when you want to upgrade rather than a 200$ module or whatever.

 

[Vayra86]

Hold on now.

A sustainable, modular PC concept. I've got one on my desk right?

 

[Wirko]

Also, why is there are person working on two delidded HDDs, theres nothing in there to service and if you doing data recovery, wheres the clean room?

The "right-to-repair" movement is mentioned in the text, so there.

 

[agent_x007]

^That 230W TDP dGPU assumption is cute

 

[bug]

Improving repairability requires fundamental changes starting from the design methodology

Bullcrap. Just go back to the designs before Apple taught everyone to glue everything together and we should be fine.

 

[Pizdarenkowitch]

^That 230W TDP dGPU assumption is cute

Chps with gaa-fet litho are supposed to bring down the average power consumption by 50%.....

 

[_roman_]

OMG that is really an official picture.

Modular PC Design: A Sustainable Approach for Enhanced Repairability and Reduced E-Waste

Modular PC Design: A Sustainable Approach for Enhanced Repairability and Reduced E-Waste Gurpreet Sandhu - Vice President, Platform Engineering Group Reshma PP - Director System Design, Platform Engineering Group Roberta Zouain - Sustainability Product Strategy & Marketing Manager, Client...

community.intel.com

There is so much wrong when you look at that picture. Look at it for a longer time period and you will see it yourself. This show, a fake picture was taken, not with someone shown who repair stuff. I do not expect much from Intel. This is again negative in my viewpoint.

--

From a technical standpoint. I had to buy a intel 3rd generation core mobile processor platform notebook. The ASUS G75VW notebook was the last with a socket DRAM, processor, graphic card and such.

Older notebooks had much higher build quality and were opened in a few minutes. Not the garbage sold now by HP, Lenovo, MSI. I can only talk about those devices I did some service on myself. Newer Laptops also die faster, e.g. my refurbished Lenovo T460 died after 11 months. Dead SATA "NVME" in a HP Laptop in less than 4 years with less usage.

Team Blue's Modular PC program—for laptops—breaks away from the tradition of utilizing an "all-in-one motherboard."

We had that already. It's an intel joke. Like always. Marketing without action. Marketing with false claims.

My main motivation to build a desktop computer was the lack of choices for repairs and components at the laptop side.

Sidenote: Keep on making such marketing. And selling me bogus Intel AX210 Wifi modules, AX200 bogus wifi modules. That will keep me away much longer from any intel product.

edit: Intel AX210 wlan crashed my box since middle of 2023. Since I disabled all power saving features on my ASUS Prime X670-P mainboard those crashes are gone. I think I made those changes around november 2024 in the uefi from my mainboard.

 

[kiakk]

They say it is premium. I am asking, Who can feel the premium with maximum 230W+125W TDP with a tiny-tiny thermal solutions. While rendering or playing games the blower fans are whistling with high pitch? I do not feel it, but what about others you guys?

 

[AusWolf]

So basically, they're proposing things not being soldered onto the motherboard? It sounds great, but how is this new or revolutionary?

 

[_roman_]

Let's talk about notebooks.

There was a time when better notebooks had the charging connector on a small printed circuit board modular. When it was broken you could swap it. Processors were in a socket like on some desktop mainboards. Graphic cards were sometimes on a printed circuit board module which was also modular. DRAM was modular with a connector on a separate printed circuit board. WLAN was modular. Harddrives were modular. USB ports were modular on a printed circuit board connected with a ribbon cable to the mainboard. Some notebooks had letters for the different types of screws in use. These notebooks had in total only ~5 different screw types in use. The laptop battery was externally exchangeable. Keyboards were below 20€ and easily replaceable.

Notebooks could be still modular and much more service friendly. It's not that hard.

Summary: Intel MArketing hoax. We had that already on the usual intel notebook platform for years.

Opinion: If Intel really wanted they could make mainboards which could be upgraded for years in notebooks. I doubt there is really a need to exchange a keyboard, a screen, usb ports, charging circuit, storage for a notebook. I think that am4 platform could be an example. A faster processor with bigger DRAM to keep on using the existing am4 platform. A noteboook mainboard is just another formfactor for a mainboard.

 

[Wirko]

Let's talk about notebooks.

There was a time when better notebooks had the charging connector on a small printed circuit board modular. When it was broken you could swap it. Processors were in a socket like on some desktop mainboards. Graphic cards were sometimes on a printed circuit board module which was also modular. DRAM was modular with a connector on a separate printed circuit board. WLAN was modular. Harddrives were modular. USB ports were modular on a printed circuit board connected with a ribbon cable to the mainboard. Some notebooks had letters for the different types of screws in use. These notebooks had in total only ~5 different screw types in use. The laptop battery was externally exchangeable. Keyboards were below 20€ and easily replaceable.

Notebooks could be still modular and much more service friendly. It's not that hard.

Summary: Intel MArketing hoax. We had that already on the usual intel notebook platform for years.

Opinion: If Intel really wanted they could make mainboards which could be upgraded for years in notebooks. I doubt there is really a need to exchange a keyboard, a screen, usb ports, charging circuit, storage for a notebook. I think that am4 platform could be an example. A faster processor with bigger DRAM to keep on using the existing am4 platform. A noteboook mainboard is just another formfactor for a mainboard.

Dell Precision 7780 from 2023...

...versus Microsoft Surface from 2017...



I mean, they aren't all that bad. Surface has even improved since the worst of times. In general, if you're not looking for the thinnest laptops, it's not hard to get one with replaceable RAM and storage, at least.