Intel kills off the desktop, PCs go with it

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Abe

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Up the creek without a GB
http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/26/intel-kills-off-the-desktop-pcs-go-with-it/

Intel is killing the desktop, but not quite as soon as people expect it to, there will be one last gasp, but that is irrelevant. Word is finally leaking there won’t be a desktop PC chip in a bit over a year.

In a story that SemiAccurate has been following for several months, Broadwell will not come in an LGA package, so no removable CPU. The news was first publicly broken by the ever sharp PC Watch, english version here, but the news has been floating in the backchannel for a bit now. The problem? This information wasn’t floating around the OEMs or the majority of the PC ecosystem, they had no clue. What does all of this mean? Quite a bit.

The most direct effect is that of Broadwell, the 14nm successor to next year’s Haswell CPU, will essentially shut out the enthusiast. Motherboards will still be available, but the CPUs that come with them will be soldered down. In addition to being a inventory management nightmare, OEMs won’t buy CPUs any more, the few remaining mobo vendors and ODMs will. As a side effect, it also cuts the enthusiast out of the picture for good, but more on that later.
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I'm sorry, but I find this pretty damn difficult to believe. Also, there's always AMD.

Edit - read the article and it seems to have some truth to it. However, I doubt this is the entire story and that the article's headline isn't at least slightly sensationalistic.
 
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I am also struggling to believe this, but if it is true... the market will definitely open up for other chip makers.
This might just be AMD's saving grace.

I suppose the time may come when my kids gaming PC's have those prior assembled Intel motherboards, but every other PC in my house will have a different processor.
 
I also can't believe that they could possibly screen out chips for headroom. There's ALWAYS some headroom in a CPU, it just depends how many volts and how much temperature you're willing to endure to get it.
 
This is purely a rumour based on a dodgy "leaked" roadmap from a Chinese website. I would read too much into it.
 
I don't see a problem buying an integrated cpu/mobo combo. It does screw the market for ASUS etc who make those gaming boards. Then again they can make them with cpu's soldered.

Also I probably don't mind since I haven't owned my own desktop in 5 years, the portability of a decent notebook is just too good to pass up.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haswell_(microarchitecture)
Haswell is the codename for a processor microarchitecture to be developed by Intel's Oregon team as the successor to the Ivy Bridge architecture.[1] Using the 22 nm process,[2] Intel is expected to release CPUs based on this microarchitecture around March to June 2013 according to leaked roadmaps

New sockets — LGA 1150 for desktops and rPGA947 & BGA1364 for the mobile market.[12] It is possible that Socket R3 will replace LGA 2011 for server Haswells[13][14]
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I wouldn't read much into the OP article, that is too far in the future, the next generation is Haswell. Besides that all this leaked documents could just be a smokescreen.
 
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Don't really see a problem with this, I consider myself an enthusiast, and I don't really replace my cpu when I buy a new build.

Because most of us keep the parts until a new generation/process node comes out, then we replace the board ram and cpu.

As long as I can replace my gfx/ upgrade ram / replace and add more drives.
 
How does integrating the CPU on the motherboard kill the desktop?
 
back to the era of 286 and 386 CPU's soldered to the motherboard...

...so if you want to upgrade to a faster CPU, you'll need a totally new motherboard.

On the other hand, it might drastically reduce "bent CPU pins" incidents.
 
Nether said:
Don't really see a problem with this, I consider myself an enthusiast, and I don't really replace my cpu when I buy a new build.

Because most of us keep the parts until a new generation/process node comes out, then we replace the board ram and cpu.

As long as I can replace my gfx/ upgrade ram / replace and add more drives.
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For manufacturers it would push up the cost of making motherboards as you now have to supply a cpu with it, warranty claim on a faulty board would invovle another cpu, You could quite easily get your combination of cpu, support chipset & port ratios wrong (based on what the consumer wants) and then you sit with expensive boards that don't sell.

This kinda smacks of MS & the OEM manufacturers where the OS is supplied with the PC, now Intel is doing the same and saying "Well you will have to sell one off our CPUs with your MB"

Hopefully this is just rumour and not true. If it is true then AMD is gonna smile I reckon.
 
walterl said:
How does integrating the CPU on the motherboard kill the desktop?
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Combinations. If a CPU manufacturer makes 5 distinct CPU's, and a MB vendor makes 5 distinct boards, then there are 10 parts in the retail channel, but you can build 25 different combinations with those parts. You may for example want features from a high-end board (USB 3, or multiple SATA ports), but pair it with a low-spec CPU for a pure file server. In order to provide that same idea into the market, the MB vendor now has to produce 25 different MB types, and each part of the retail channel has to carry all 25 those parts. This leads to higher costs, especially when sales of a particular combination will be low, so only the profitable combinations will be manufactured.

It won't lead to the end of the desktop, but to the end of the "build it the way you want it" desktop. Want a a high-end CPU? Paired with a high-end board. Want a low-end CPU? Always paired with a low-end board. Want a different combination? Not available.
 
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