Report: Intel Broadwell-K CPU to Launch in Q4 2014

[RedundantInk]

VR-Zone has reported that Intel's 14 nm Broadwell-K CPUs will be launched in Q4 2014.

Report: Intel Broadwell-K CPU to Launch in Q4 2014 : Read more

 

[natoco]

So 12 months to wait for a 5% bump in speed.... Oh but the gpu you won't use is twice as powerful. Good times....

 

[InvalidError]

So, if there is an LGA1150 Broadwell, it will be coming out roughly a whole year after the mobile/AIO/etc. variants and not be compatible with current motherboards... and the roadmap naming seems to imply LGA1150 models will only be K-models, which means $220+ parts.

This is more or less what I was expecting.

 

[milktea]

Where's the SATA Express and DDR4 support?
I'm waiting to push my SSD to 2GB/s.

 

[sykozis]

Why is a rumor being brought up, that Intel already debunked? Intel stated that mainstream and enthusiast parts would remain on LGA. In fact, Tom's ran an article about it themselves...

I don't see why a "defect density issue" would delay a processor launch by a year....unless, of course, the engineers are just completely clueless on how to fix it. Which would be rather usual for Intel.

 

[CaedenV]

So 12 months to wait for a 5% bump in speed.... Oh but the gpu you won't use is twice as powerful. Good times....

nobody upgrades for the CPU anymore, it is all about the chipsets these days. This one is obviously a minor refresh, but adding stream support for USB3, and moving RST to support PCIe Storage (which will be the precursor to SATA Express in the following gen) are worth getting at least a little excited about.

Also, with the TDP going up while overall platform continues to go down means that there is more and more motherboard stuffs being shoved onto the CPU die, but I guess we will have to wait and see what exactly that is.

But you are right. At the end of the day the focus here is to get X86 into more and more mobile devices rather than pushing the high performance devices. With new consoles coming out in a month, and true 'next gen' games starting to pop up on PC next year, I would bet that the late 2015 or early 2016 Skylake/mont refresh will have something special for those of us who upgraded with Sandy Bridge. At that point we are expecting to see full DDR4 support, SATA Express, the possibility of most of the northbridge moving to the CPU die, PCIe4, and possibly the introduction of 10,000 Ethernet for home users.
And on top of that we are expecting a renewed (for at least 1 generation) attention to high end performance rather than the little 5-10% bumps we have seen the last few generations.

 

[CaedenV]

Why is a rumor being brought up, that Intel already debunked? Intel stated that mainstream and enthusiast parts would remain on LGA. In fact, Tom's ran an article about it themselves...

I don't see why a "defect density issue" would delay a processor launch by a year....unless, of course, the engineers are just completely clueless on how to fix it. Which would be rather usual for Intel.

Right, ENTHUSIAST parts will remain on LGA. This means that if you are building a system then you are either stuck with a K series part which will run on LGA, or else you will get a motherboard with a BGA chip pre-installed. Presumably these BGA chips will have a pay-to-unlock scheme if you want extra cores, HT, upgraded graphics, etc.

People like myself who typically build higher end systems under a budget will be forced into a more expensive K sku rather than the non-k unit we would normally purchase. Not the end of the world, but it is a bit annoying. Thankfully the next gen will supposedly go back to normal again... but after that I am afraid the nonK chips will be locked to BGA forever.

 

[jimmysmitty]

So 12 months to wait for a 5% bump in speed.... Oh but the gpu you won't use is twice as powerful. Good times....

If you want no GPU, then you go with the xX9 chipsets, not theZX8 chipsets. That's been pretty common since LGA1156.

Where's the SATA Express and DDR4 support?
I'm waiting to push my SSD to 2GB/s.

The first platform to have DDR4 is Haswell-EP, might not even make it to the Haswell-E platform but its hard to say.

For us it will probably come in the chips after Broadwell.

I am also excited for SATA Express but honestly, you can't tell the difference for the most part. The main benefit I can see is going to be a increase in IOPS.

So 12 months to wait for a 5% bump in speed.... Oh but the gpu you won't use is twice as powerful. Good times....

nobody upgrades for the CPU anymore, it is all about the chipsets these days. This one is obviously a minor refresh, but adding stream support for USB3, and moving RST to support PCIe Storage (which will be the precursor to SATA Express in the following gen) are worth getting at least a little excited about.

Also, with the TDP going up while overall platform continues to go down means that there is more and more motherboard stuffs being shoved onto the CPU die, but I guess we will have to wait and see what exactly that is.

But you are right. At the end of the day the focus here is to get X86 into more and more mobile devices rather than pushing the high performance devices. With new consoles coming out in a month, and true 'next gen' games starting to pop up on PC next year, I would bet that the late 2015 or early 2016 Skylake/mont refresh will have something special for those of us who upgraded with Sandy Bridge. At that point we are expecting to see full DDR4 support, SATA Express, the possibility of most of the northbridge moving to the CPU die, PCIe4, and possibly the introduction of 10,000 Ethernet for home users.
And on top of that we are expecting a renewed (for at least 1 generation) attention to high end performance rather than the little 5-10% bumps we have seen the last few generations.

10Gbe probably wont come to home users for a few years TBH. Its still pretty expensive and there isn't even a decently priced home router that can use it so having it on your NIC would be pointless as the router will be limited to 1Gbe.

Why is a rumor being brought up, that Intel already debunked? Intel stated that mainstream and enthusiast parts would remain on LGA. In fact, Tom's ran an article about it themselves...

I don't see why a "defect density issue" would delay a processor launch by a year....unless, of course, the engineers are just completely clueless on how to fix it. Which would be rather usual for Intel.

Right, ENTHUSIAST parts will remain on LGA. This means that if you are building a system then you are either stuck with a K series part which will run on LGA, or else you will get a motherboard with a BGA chip pre-installed. Presumably these BGA chips will have a pay-to-unlock scheme if you want extra cores, HT, upgraded graphics, etc.

People like myself who typically build higher end systems under a budget will be forced into a more expensive K sku rather than the non-k unit we would normally purchase. Not the end of the world, but it is a bit annoying. Thankfully the next gen will supposedly go back to normal again... but after that I am afraid the nonK chips will be locked to BGA forever.

Again, Intel has already displaced this. There is nothing pointing towards this as the only thing with extra cores we have seen is a article showing how Intel plans to possibly add extra cores in the CPU as backups because as you get smaller, the chance of failure increases.

This is why rumors are so bad. Rumors spin out of control and keep getting pushed until the actual release.

As for the slides, anyone else notice it says PCIe 2.0 5GT/s? Why would the 9 series chipset (the next in line) go from PCIe 3.0 to PCIe 2.0?

Maybe a misprint or this is just fud.

 

[InvalidError]

I don't see why a "defect density issue" would delay a processor launch by a year....unless, of course, the engineers are just completely clueless on how to fix it.

Broadwell for mobile/laptop/AIO/etc. only got delayed by a few months from late-2013 to early-2014 due to yield problems. LGA Broadwell-K (presumably K-only models) is the new chip on Intel's roadmap.

By the time Broadwell-K comes out, Skylake will be just around the corner unless Intel changes their mind about not delaying Skylake.

 

[InvalidError]

As for the slides, anyone else notice it says PCIe 2.0 5GT/s? Why would the 9 series chipset (the next in line) go from PCIe 3.0 to PCIe 2.0?

Maybe a misprint or this is just fud.

Probably no misprint there. With the DMI interface's limited bandwidth, the IO hub does not have sufficient CPU-chipset bandwidth to support PCIe 3.0 on the IO hub on top of all other built-in IO anyway.

On Intel systems, the Ivy Bridge or newer i5/i7 CPUs provide 16x PCIe 3.0 lanes (or 40 for SB-E/IB-E on LGA2011) while the IO hub provides PCIe 2.0. Older and lower-end Intel CPUs only support PCIe 2.0.

 

[beta212]

So is Nvidia's Maxwell, also Q4 2014, 4*2-1-4=3 Half life 3 confirmed!

 

[danwat1234]

Broadwell will be getting the Southbridge onto the CPU die.
Nehalem was the NB and the memory controller, Sandy Bridge was the GPU, Haswell was the VRMs, I believe.

 

[FunSurfer]

As for the slides, anyone else notice it says PCIe 2.0 5GT/s? Why would the 9 series chipset (the next in line) go from PCIe 3.0 to PCIe 2.0?

Maybe a misprint or this is just fud.

Probably no misprint there. With the DMI interface's limited bandwidth, the IO hub does not have sufficient CPU-chipset bandwidth to support PCIe 3.0 on the IO hub on top of all other built-in IO anyway.

On Intel systems, the Ivy Bridge or newer i5/i7 CPUs provide 16x PCIe 3.0 lanes (or 40 for SB-E/IB-E on LGA2011) while the IO hub provides PCIe 2.0. Older and lower-end Intel CPUs only support PCIe 2.0.

But in the middle diagram it is written 2.0 above the PCIe and 3.0 below the PCIe and the 3.0 can't be the SATA value because the chipset supports SATA 6. So which is it? Maybe it supports both?

 

[enewmen]

What's the difference between the 2014 Haswell refresh and Broadwell-K. Are both 14nm?
I'm guessing the 2014 Refresh is exactly the same as 2013 Haswell - except being 14nm. The Broadwell-K has minimal architectural improvement over Haswell - better iGPU, etc.
Correct?
Both the Refresh and Broadwell-K use the 9 series CS?

 

[InvalidError]

3.0 can't be the SATA value because the chipset supports SATA 6. So which is it?

SATA v3.0 is 6Gbps.

 

[Ryan Klug]

BGA Broadwell will be great for tablets, laptops and NUC's. Plug and Play LGA K variants should keep desktop enthusiasts happy (or at least as happy as they are with Haswell). I'm not worried about Intel's strategy or timing.

 

[Ryan Klug]

(double post)

 

[ohim]

Am i the only one who thinks lately it would be better to put out a new product once in 2 years that trying to rush out every year? This goes the same for GPUs

 

[InvalidError]

Am i the only one who thinks lately it would be better to put out a new product once in 2 years that trying to rush out every year?

This is pretty much what Intel wants to start doing now and with only 5-7% gains between incremental generations, alternating between desktop and laptop to skip a generation on each complete cycle probably would not hurt. It is not like a 10-15% performance increase every two years instead of 5-7% per year would make much of a difference for most people either.

That would be fine with me... if Intel would pass some of the savings they are going to make off of that back to consumers. Trends from the past few years however indicate this is highly unlikely.

 

[Neal_nelson]

I don't work in the business, but I gather that there are a couple of changes to the annual tick-tock cycle.
1. Between Skylake (Jan 2016?) and Sandy Bridge 1-9-11, there would have been 5 years but only 4 chip series. Ivy Bridge took nearly 16 months, etc.
2. The 9 series chipsets will be compatible with Haswell, but the 8 series chipsets won't be compatible with Broadwell, even with a BIOS flash - unlike previous generations.

 

[hannibal]

Haswell refress is suposed to be 22nm version with some upgrades maybe from Broadwell architecture. Could this be mobile K-series broadwell announcement? But if it is, why so much later than normat mobile broadwell, so not likely quess...

 

[enterprise24]

Hope they will remove FIVR from die , that cause temp skyrocket when OC even delidded it's still hot.

 

[InvalidError]

Hope they will remove FIVR from die , that cause temp skyrocket when OC even delidded it's still hot.

Haswell Refresh reuses LGA1150 so FIVR will stick around for that. Broadwell for mobiles and SoC has FIVR too so it seems unlikely that Intel will take it out for Broadwell-K which is also supposed to reuse the LGA1150 socket, albeit without 8x series chipset compatibility.

If Intel does decide to take FIVR back, it most likely won't be until Skylake and since Intel does not officially condone overclocking even on K/X-chips, loss of overclocking due to extra heat likely won't be the main reason for doing so if they do do it.

Also, since 14nm chips will likely operate at even lower voltages, maintaining proper voltage regulation with off-chip regulators is going to become that much more challenging since voltage drop across the motherboard, socket and LGA substrate wiring is going to account for a larger chunk of total voltage.

 

[hannibal]

Also, since 14nm chips will likely operate at even lower voltages, maintaining proper voltage regulation with off-chip regulators is going to become that much more challenging since voltage drop across the motherboard, socket and LGA substrate wiring is going to account for a larger chunk of total voltage.

Yep, there is not going back. You are right on target in that!

 

[klepp0906]

I don't work in the business, but I gather that there are a couple of changes to the annual tick-tock cycle.
1. Between Skylake (Jan 2016?) and Sandy Bridge 1-9-11, there would have been 5 years but only 4 chip series. Ivy Bridge took nearly 16 months, etc.
2. The 9 series chipsets will be compatible with Haswell, but the 8 series chipsets won't be compatible with Broadwell, even with a BIOS flash - unlike previous generations.

we don't know that yet. keep the rumors to a minimum. already SO much misinformation spewed as fact its becoming hard to use the internet as a reliable resource when it comes to sensitive stuff.

we will know soon enough.