Intel Pentium And Celeron (Braswell) 14 nm SoCs Now Shipping
At IDF Shenzen, Intel made a flurry of announcements, including the news that its new Braswell SoCs are now shipping.
Intel quietly added four new Braswell SKUs to its pricelist just over a week ago, including a new Pentium chip (quad core) and three Celerons (one quad core, two dual core). The Braswell SoCs replace Bay Trail and are designed for 2-in-1s and laptops, but also SFF desktops and AIOs.
Based on the Airmont architecture and built on the tri-gate 14 nm manufacturing process, these Braswell chips should appear in consumer products in time for the crush of back-to-school shopping this year. Intel stated that we should expect some 40 OEM products running Braswell around that timeframe.
Intel said to expect Braswell to offer double the graphics performance of Bay Trail, with more efficient battery life and a lower TDP. The Braswell SoCs offer a TDP of between 4 W and 6 W, while Pentium and Celeron Bay Trail chips are as low as 4.3 W and as high as 10 W, with a number of 7.5 W SKUs in between.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Intel Pentium N3700 | Intel Celeron N3000 | Intel Celeron N3050 | Intel Celeron N3150 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cores / Threads | 4 / 4 | 2 / 2 | 2 / 2 | 4 / 4 |
| Base / Burst Frequency | 1.6 / 2.4 GHz | 1.04 / 2.08 GHz | 1.6 / 2.16 GHz | 1.6 / 2.08 GHz |
| Cache | 2 MB L2 | 2 MB L2 | 2 MB L2 | 2 MB L2 |
| Instruction Set | 64-bit | 64-bit | 64-bit | 64-bit |
| Lithography | 14 nm | 14 nm | 14 nm | 14 nm |
| TDP | 6 W | 4 W | 6 W | 6 W |
| SDP | 4 W | 3 W | 4 W | 4 W |
| Memory | 8 GB DDR3L-1600, dual-channel | 8 GB DDR3L-1600, dual-channel | 8 GB DDR3L-1600, dual-channel | 8 GB DDR3L-1600, dual-channel |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics | Intel HD Graphics | Intel HD Graphics | Intel HD Graphics |
| Base / Burst Frequency | 400 / 700 MHz | 320 / 600 MHz | 320 / 600 MHz | 320 / 640 MHz |
| Graphics Output | eDP / DP / HDMI | eDP / DP / HDMI | eDP / DP / HDMI | eDP / DP / HDMI |
| Expansion | PCIe 2.0 (4 lanes) | PCIe 2.0 (4 lanes) | PCIe 2.0 (4 lanes) | PCIe 2.0 (4 lanes) |
| USB | 2.0 / 3.0, 5 ports | 2.0 / 3.0, 5 ports | 2.0 / 3.0, 5 ports | 2.0 / 3.0, 5 ports |
| SATA 6 Gbps Ports | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
However, don't let the promise of better graphics performance obscure the fact that these are not performance chips. They're very much aimed at products in the value and entry-level market segments.
One major data point we're still missing on the new Braswell chips is a price point. The more recent Pentium and Celeron Bay Trail quad core chips have "recommended consumer price" points ranging from $82 to $161, but Intel has not released that information for Braswell.
Seth Colaner is the News Director for Tom's Hardware. Follow Seth Colaner @SethColaner. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
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Seth Colaner previously served as News Director at Tom's Hardware. He covered technology news, focusing on keyboards, virtual reality, and wearables.
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TNT27 4 core pentiums coming? how about something like a 4 core g3258 on desktops? at the same prces?!Reply -
artk2219 "4 core pentiums coming? how about something like a 4 core g3258 on desktops? at the same prces?!"Reply
Or hell, why not just have an unlocked I3? No it isnt going to be like an I5, but dammit I want to tweak stuff! Honestly it would be nice if the i7's moved to 6 core 12 thread chips, the i5's were 4 core 8 thread chips, the i3's were quad cores, the pentium were 2 core 4 thread, and the celerons were just as they are now, dual cores. But i'm asking too much and i have no idea what their yields are like or what the sales would be like. They could also sell a 6 core with no hyperthreading thats unlocked, but i have no idea where that would slot in. It would also be nice if mobile i5's were real i5's and not rebadged and higher clocked I3's, but it is what it is, dont even get me started on the 2 core 4 thread "i7's". -
Ninjawithagun Enough with the hooplah crap processors. What we really want to know is when will Skylake CPUs be released!!Reply -
CaedenV Reply4 core pentiums coming? how about something like a 4 core g3258 on desktops? at the same prces?!
These are dual and quad core Atom chips branded as Pentium and Celery... these are not the same as the g-series Celery and Pentium chips for desktop products.
Confused? Well so is everyone else.
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CaedenV ReplyEnough with the hooplah crap processors. What we really want to know is when will Skylake CPUs be released!!
100% agree! Skylake is supposed to be the first real focus on desktop in a while, so it will be interesting to see what they put out. Personally, I am still quite happy with my 4 year old i7 humming away at 4.2GHz, and I fear that a faster or more efficient chip is not going to be enough to get me to upgrade.
What will make me upgrade? More cores at the same (or better) performance and same price point (~$350-400). Onboard 10Gb/s Ethernet. Board level support and headers for mobile tech like BT, WiDi (RX and TX), and NFC/Tap-to-send with wifi handoff for faster than BT file transfers between mobile devices and the desktop. Multiple M.2 or PCIe SATA connections. DDR4.
Sadly, I don't think Skylake is going to offer most of these. -
OC_DeMoN Reply15636805 said:4 core pentiums coming? how about something like a 4 core g3258 on desktops? at the same prces?!
These are dual and quad core Atom chips branded as Pentium and Celery... these are not the same as the g-series Celery and Pentium chips for desktop products.
Confused? Well so is everyone else.
Celery?
lol -
Wisecracker Ahhh, Springtime.Reply
Sun is shinning. It's getting warm. Birds are singing as thoughts turn to love.
And Intel hoists some more billion-dollar losing Atoms on an unsuspecting future back-to-school market.
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Pherule It's Rockwell Intel! Use the original name, I don't know why it was changed in the first place. Rockwell sounds way better.Reply -
knowom Reply"4 core pentiums coming? how about something like a 4 core g3258 on desktops? at the same prces?!"
4 core g3258 would actually be faster than a unlocked i3 and have 1MB cache more cache on top of not having 4 physical cores for threading rather than hyper-threading.
Or hell, why not just have an unlocked I3? No it isnt going to be like an I5, but dammit I want to tweak stuff! Honestly it would be nice if the i7's moved to 6 core 12 thread chips, the i5's were 4 core 8 thread chips, the i3's were quad cores, the pentium were 2 core 4 thread, and the celerons were just as they are now, dual cores. But i'm asking too much and i have no idea what their yields are like or what the sales would be like. They could also sell a 6 core with no hyperthreading thats unlocked, but i have no idea where that would slot in. It would also be nice if mobile i5's were real i5's and not rebadged and higher clocked I3's, but it is what it is, dont even get me started on the 2 core 4 thread "i7's".