While the vast majority of the volume in desktop processors-and yes, there IS still volume in desktop processors-is in the mainstream non-K products, the unlocked Broadwell K-series processors move out the door at ridiculous gross margins. Out of character: the desktop roadmap/timeline has always been published simul, and the unlocked devices rarely if ever lead the show. Indeed, it is something of a mystery when Broadwell will appear on the non-K Core i5 and i7 CPUs. These are the unlocked “enthusiast class” CPUs atop the desktop product line, which typically do not get the first-in-the-queue treatment. Intel is in the process of rolling out Broadwell K-series desktop processors right now. While Skylake will no doubt bring higher performance AND lower power benefits to the mobile product line, I am hard-pressed to see it as the launch point. Launching Skylake on the mobile product line would Osborne the aforementioned products before the “Intel Inside” labels had time to peel off. Even this first batch of products demonstrate creative solutions made possible by Broadwell’s smaller form factor and lower TDP: most everything is fanless, for example. OEMs have already announced Broadwell-based tablets and two-in-ones, shipping this month in time for the holidays. Such a dearth of information does not impede my observations and speculations one iota.īroadwell was launched across the mobile product line and for good reason: Intel is terribly vulnerable to ARM at the tablet-ish end of the market. Zero detail on the new microarchitecture nor its order of appearance across the product lines. The last product updates show an amorphous Skylake blob arriving in H2CY2015. In plain English: there is little reason that Skylake should experience a six-quarter delay the new microarchitecture ought to be “waiting in the wings” and ready be designed into mobile, laptop, desktop and server products … but by no means in that order.įrustratingly for the journalism crowd, Intel ain’t saying much. Given that Broadwell is a modest architectural step and Skylake is designed for the at-last-in-production 14nm FinFET process, a reasonable conjecture is that Intel will have an asymmetrical tick-tock metronome on 14nm. It will be interesting to see the developments and if Broadwell is really delayed or this is just game of words on Intel’s part.The possible answers to that question are so fascinating because of the six-quarter (being kind) delay bringing up the 14nm FinFET process and Broadwell along with it. The chipset responsible for Haswell refresh is already branded as Z97 and H97 in desktop versions replacing the Z87 and H87 boards proving that the socket are likely to continue existing at least through 2014. When it gets ready the Haswell refresh (possibly a disguise name for Broadwell ed.) is replacing Core i7, Core i5, Core i3, Pentium and Celeron based Haswell chips, some sooner rather than later. It is not certain what would happen to 2015 Skylake, a new 14nm architecture, or the 10nm Skymont that is supposed to be the shrink, but in case Broadwell gets pushed back by a year there is a big possibility that the whole roadmap would slip a year. In case that the Haswell refresh is a tweaked 22nm core, this would mean that after 7 years of execution and billions of investments in cutting edge fabrication processes, Intel would have to slow things down. Haswell is a tock, a 22nm new architecture and Broadwell is supposed to be based on Haswell fundamentals, but shrunk to 14nm like a proper “tock”. Intel's latest roadmap claims that in 12 months from now, in Q2 2014 Haswell will be replaced by a “Haswell refresh”. Intel has been executing its tick tock strategy flawlessly since January 2006 and now there is some indication that we might see the first slip in 8 years come 2014.
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