Haswell may be the last upgradeable mainstream CPU from Intel

[The Coolest]

As personal computers become smaller, their flexibility is decreasing. According to a media report starting from code-named Broadwell generation of processors, Intel Corp. will only offer mainstream desktop chips in BGA packaging, which will eliminate upgrade options as well as increase risks for PC makers.

Source

Not sure whether to believe this report or not, so far it's only rumors. This sounds a little bit crazy to me, as that will completely kill off Intel's mainstream enthusiast market.

[PedantOne]

yeah, because Broadwell is only notebook CPU, in 2014 will be still Haswell in desktop and Broadwell only in notebooks. Thats all

[BababooeyHTJ]

Sure, Intel is going to drop the low cost desktop cpus and chipsets that they probably sell more of than the workstation stuff.

[IFMU]

Even if this isn't "the end" of desktop type CPU's, it is coming. The way things are going, desktops are going to end before too much longer.

[Hornet331]

From comments:

This article says:

-- Intel will not provide new products for Desktop and non-BGA laptop segments in Broadwell era
-- Instead, they will provide higher clocked Haswell for those segments in 2014
-- Broadwell is "more than tick", and it will include some technologies that were previously planned for Skylake
-- This is because Intel needs to be more competitive in the tablet market, and this may mean the end of Tick-Tock strategy
-- It mentions nothing about Skylake and later or if they will be LGA or not for the desktop

So this sounds more like broadwell will be redesigned as pure mobile chip as intel skips tick/tock and the next "normal" cpu replacement will be skylake.

Original source:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/c...22_574440.html

and even with google translate it the article indicate that broadwell will be aimed at tablets/ultrabook and is not a replacement aka tock for haswell anymore.
But as usual, rumors are rumors

[The Coolest]

@Hornet331

I really hope that you're right and that Intel desktop is not dead.

[jogshy]

Future are APU SoCs with Hyper/Hybrid Memory Cube embedded and super-simple small motherboards.
No RAM chips/DIMMS and no GPUs. Just accept and embrace it.

[Kallenator]

Pretty sure we will see some insane ARM multi-threading for desktops actually

[LightSpeed]

The way I see it, Intel are slowly moving away from giving desktop users their latest and greatest. Unlike Nehalem, the top end parts with all the bells and whistles (ie. quad channel, hex core, latest node) are not released for desktop users initially and instead they have to wait many months. In the future, desktop users wont even get the current 'mainstream' CPU's at the latest node, it will be the tablets/ultrabooks receiving them, with mainstream desktop CPU's on the latest node being released later and the current 'top end' being Xeon only.

Things are moving very rapidly. The industry has changed so much over the past few years, in the next ten we will see a sad demise of many PC component makers as things get more embedded. It truly is sad.

[AliG]

The way I see it, Intel are slowly moving away from giving desktop users their latest and greatest. Unlike Nehalem, the top end parts with all the bells and whistles (ie. quad channel, hex core, latest node) are not released for desktop users initially and instead they have to wait many months. In the future, desktop users wont even get the current 'mainstream' CPU's at the latest node, it will be the tablets/ultrabooks receiving them, with mainstream desktop CPU's on the latest node being released later and the current 'top end' being Xeon only.

Things are moving very rapidly. The industry has changed so much over the past few years, in the next ten we will see a sad demise of many PC component makers as things get more embedded. It truly is sad.

Let's say you're correct, two things:

1. Is that necessarily a bad thing?
2. If you think yes, can you fault Intel for not wanting to sit idle and do what AMD did with the athlon64?

If all the high end parts go to tablets, then that just means in a few years we're going to have unbelievable tablets. Yes that means less customization of computers, but it also means a lot more processing power directly in your hand. Wouldn't it be at the very minimum interesting if you could do a COMSOL simulation while walking down the hallway to your thermodynamics lab? Things come and go. Most people didn't initially think focusing on IPC over clockspeed would yield such a promising outcome, why not give this a shot?

[zanzabar]

if this brings the prices down on the higher end socket and maybe brings back ocing to all chips it should be great. as of now we have the 1156 being better than 1333, and 1155 sb being better than 2011 sb-2, so it may not be good in the end though. i would also like to see things go back to the 775 style with a p and x chipset.

[iMacmatician]

Unlike Nehalem, the top end parts with all the bells and whistles (ie. quad channel, hex core, latest node) are not released for desktop users initially and instead they have to wait many months.

They sort of did this with Nehalem, but probably for different reasons. IIRC Lynnfield (and probably some Bloomfield) didn't have a direct 32 nm Westmere successor and that segment had to wait until Sandy Bridge.

[mrcape]

Screw mobile and tablets, what a lame regression. I like to work at a desk dammit, with giant hi res monitors and many windows open... PRODUCING.

Fine if you make the monitors touch, but I don't see this as progress for power users at all, usability-wise it's a gimping, and I don't agree that it is the only possible future, no way. It's the mobile future for teens, moms and sales guys.

We are going back to more like dumb terminals and mainframe, but now it will be terminal and cloud (or ASP, same $hit different gay name). So big deal, the heavy processing has to happen somewhere and it will happen on servers. We can still mess with and run our own servers, it's fun too.

And good riddance to the crappy video card gaming marketing and fan boys. And don't say stuff like "embrace it" (mobile) as if it's the end all, that is such a turn off and uninformed speculation.

[LightSpeed]

Let's say you're correct, two things:

1. Is that necessarily a bad thing?
2. If you think yes, can you fault Intel for not wanting to sit idle and do what AMD did with the athlon64?

If all the high end parts go to tablets, then that just means in a few years we're going to have unbelievable tablets. Yes that means less customization of computers, but it also means a lot more processing power directly in your hand. Wouldn't it be at the very minimum interesting if you could do a COMSOL simulation while walking down the hallway to your thermodynamics lab? Things come and go. Most people didn't initially think focusing on IPC over clockspeed would yield such a promising outcome, why not give this a shot?

Never said its a bad thing, but I just cant see myself without customization of traditional desktops. Of course, they will surely exist for many years to come. CAD/Rendering etc will benefit from the lower thermal constraints provided by desktops, but the enthusiast space will see quite a dramatic fall with many vendors we know and love gone for good.

They sort of did this with Nehalem, but probably for different reasons. IIRC Lynnfield (and probably some Bloomfield) didn't have a direct 32 nm Westmere successor and that segment had to wait until Sandy Bridge.

I believe that segment (1366) did have westmere but it was very late with SB coming out in a few months and generally being on par with it while consuming less power and faster ST performance. With SB, it all started and the 2011 socket never got the latest node on time.

[ilkkahy]

Screw mobile and tablets, what a lame regression. I like to work at a desk god dammit, with giant hi res monitors and many windows open... PRODUCING.

I agree with this. I work as mechanical engineer and i can tell that current cpu development direction is not so great from my point of view. I understand that cad-modeling cannot be made that multithreaded and i can confirm that larger 3d-models still totally suck ass with SolidWorks and Siemens NX. Not much development in the last 5 years really. It may take 15min to save work with bit larger 3d-model and 10 more cores does not make it any bit faster..

[FlanK3r]

btw, if we talking here about HSWL, do you know something new about this CPUs? Example frequencies? I think, now must be some ES ready...

[massman]

btw, if we talking here about HSWL, do you know something new about this CPUs? Example frequencies? I think, now must be some ES ready...

Most of the ES are, as usual, low frequency and not unlocked. Afaik, in China you can already buy some of those early ES (A0) on the black market, but those are not really interesting.

[Stukov]

If people really think Intel is abandoning the desktop sector, I have a bridge to sell you.

[DilTech]

If people really think Intel is abandoning the desktop sector, I have a bridge to sell you.

Is it a sandy one, or an ivy one.

[Mats]

From comments:

This article says:

-- Intel will not provide new products for Desktop and non-BGA laptop segments in Broadwell era
-- Instead, they will provide higher clocked Haswell for those segments in 2014
-- Broadwell is "more than tick", and it will include some technologies that were previously planned for Skylake
-- This is because Intel needs to be more competitive in the tablet market, and this may mean the end of Tick-Tock strategy
-- It mentions nothing about Skylake and later or if they will be LGA or not for the desktop

So this sounds more like broadwell will be redesigned as pure mobile chip as intel skips tick/tock and the next "normal" cpu replacement will be skylake.

Original source:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/c...22_574440.html

and even with google translate it the article indicate that broadwell will be aimed at tablets/ultrabook and is not a replacement aka tock for haswell anymore.
But as usual, rumors are rumors

In a way it makes sense. Given the competition and the and the market demand, Intel doesn't need a new desktop CPU every year.

Tock = desktop (and maybe mobile aswell): Better performance.
Tick = mobile only: Lower power consumption.

[K404]

Mobile has its place an all but really, there are millions of people who need real CPU power and real memory volumes for their work.

If hardware availability is split into mobile & server, the world will become a worse place because the vast majority of people will be priced out of their sector, OR, their fees will be increased significantly

[AMDforME]

It does not surprise me that Intel would try to steal the entire mobo industry if they can. The FTC may have something to say about that however...

[[XC] Lead Head]

Not sure how Intel would be stealing the entire motherboard industry? BGA CPUs != Intel Producing All Motherboards.

[RVWinkle]

It does not surprise me that Intel would try to steal the entire mobo industry if they can. The FTC may have something to say about that however...

This has nothing to do with the motherboard industry. Think about how you can buy a motherboard with an atom chip soldered on.

[Ket]

While mobile devices will continue to stride forward, desktops will never die simply because the potential is always there with desktops to absolutely destroy any and all mobile device in terms of raw performance. I do see in the not too distant future "off the shelf" PCs becoming much smaller due to decent IGPs starting to be part of the CPU where propriety boards won't have PCI-E slots, PCI slots, or anything like that. It'll be a super tiny board with a couple DRAM slots with SATA ports and everything else on-board. Very nice for average joe, boring as hell for us.