Intel Broadwell will be BGA only

[xnoodle]

That's going to change the market, to say the least. Broadwell (the 14nm "tock" to upcoming Haswell) will only be available in BGA. No more LGA.

http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/26/intel-kills-off-the-desktop-pcs-go-with-it/

Updated 11/26/12@3:25pm: One point to add, two OEMs have confirmed to SemiAccurate that they have now been briefed that Broadwell is BGA only.

 

[Patrick]

There is a reason STH does not do a ton of consumer desktop reviews. That market is consolidating quickly. I will downsize by three devices the day I can get a Haswell Surface Pro.

 

[gigatexal]

I see this as simplifying the building of computers (I'm trying to see this as a glass half full thing). But I can't. I mean I always built the bare essentials that I needed and then expanded as the things I wanted to do with my computer expanded. For example when games became more taxing I added another gpu for SLI. I am leery on this and I'm not sure why Intel is doing this.

 

[cactus]

Nothing was said about Broadwell-E(P), servers/workstations will continue to have sockets for a long time to come. Enthusiast PCs have always been a niche market and the full sized desktops are heading toward enthusiast only. For web/office and even *Full HD* gaming iMac like machines are adequate and, I would say, preferred by the mass market.

 

[Jeggs101]

Haswell will be a total game changer. Win8 Pro tablets will dominate the marketplace.

 

[marcel83]

Why would they do this? I think they are only trying to put compact desktops and tablets into market place. I don’t really know anyone who uses iMac for Full HD gaming btw. If someone does, he or she doesn’t know what full HD gaming is. PCs have always been the favorites; in fact the only choice of enthusiasts and this might just change that.

 

[RimBlock]

I would be very surprised if Intel were to do this and basically kill the majority of choice in the market place off. They are more likely to be alternating releases between mobile / laptop and desktop models as the differences between Sandy and Ivy bridge were really not that great which saw a downturn in Ivy bridge sales compared to Sandy Bridge, or so I understand .

They would also be opening the door for AMD just to walk in and take over (if they are still around) and potentally give away a the enthusiast market share. Maybe Intel don't care but I am sure AMD will be happy for the handout.

Remember, they did the old slot processor cartridges in the past where the CPU was already attached to a board and the whole board was slotted in to the motherboard (slot 1). No reason why the MB manufacturers could not adopt a version of this unless Intel crushes any attempt to do so.

According to the leaked roadmap here (jpg), the Broadwell chips are low power so not so great for the desktop power users market anyway.

RB