Haswell to be last series of interchangeable processors?
 

This is probably well over a year down the road, but there are rumors that Haswell's successor, Broadwell, will not be using LGA sockets: [url]http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Haswell-Broadwell-LGA-BGA-Atom,19314.html[/url]

If this is true, it probably wouldn't affect most PC buyers. However, it'll undoubtedly make things more difficult for enthusiasts. What does everyone think?

Yich.

Maybe an opening for AMD but without INTEL most mobo manufactures are gone outside OEM builds.

Sad days

[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylake_(microarchitecture)"]Skylake[/URL] [U]will be[/U] a socketed CPU. Reference [URL="http://semiaccurate.com/2012/11/26/intel-kills-off-the-desktop-pcs-go-with-it/"]here[/URL], 2nd paragraph from the end. That may be the end though...

That would be a really bad marketing decision. We work for industrial area, and still have strange customers sometime who wanna change the CPU by themselves, to "try the best". I imagine the "home market", i.e. people at home, if they are so crazy like I am, they will want to be able to pick their own processors, up to the budget. Manufacturers also won't like to have (imagine Asus mainboards, already hundreds of choices) each mainboard in many versions, with dedicated CPUs (that would be like 20 different choices for Asus Maximus V Extreme only, for example). It would be a freaking mess, unless they all will be very powerful and very cheap (read: all to have the same incredible computer power and the same cheap price, in which case the differentiation won't mater). Somehow I believe they will become more and more powerful, and cheaper and cheaper, this is the goal, isn't it?

OTOH, there is nothing wrong with BGA package, there are already "piggy-back" sockets for them (right now 10 times more expensive then the CPUs, they are dedicated to development, programming internal flashes, whatever). You have a limited number of insertions, like 5, 10, maximum, same as for FFC cables, which you can do before destroying the balls, but who cares? How many of you changed the CPU more then 5 times in your computer's life? So, let them produce BGA packages only, the market will find a way to produce cheap sockets for BGA package... :razz:

[QUOTE=LaurV;320315]So, let them produce BGA packages only, the market will find a way to produce cheap sockets for BGA package... :razz:[/QUOTE]That's something which occurred to me.

Back in the day I had a 25MHz 80386 machine which I upgraded twice, the first time by putting in the 387 FPU. The second time I purchased an EverGreen 486 processor which had been soldered onto a small circuit board, itself containing the pins suitable for plugging into the 386 socket.

The conclusion should be obvious.

Paul

From what I've heard, the "high-end" chips will still use LGA. If the rumors are indeed true, then I wouldn't be surprised if it's a ploy to get enthusiasts to switch to the more expensive "Extreme Edition" or Xeon chips.

[QUOTE=ixfd64;320332]From what I've heard, the "high-end" chips will still use LGA. If the rumors are indeed true, then I wouldn't be surprised if it's a ploy to get enthusiasts to switch to the more expensive "Extreme Edition" or Xeon chips.[/QUOTE]

Dammit AMD, get your act together!

Gah, indeed! I just hope this is only a rumor... but :(

Hopefully it will be something like i7 upwards that is LGA.

Don't throw stones at me, I'm kinda aok with this. Hear me out.

How often does one upgrade a socketed CPU?

I've owned several systems over the years, it's very rare I've upgraded the CPU and kept everything else as-is.

I don't think it spells doom to the mobo manufacturers. Might spell doom for heatsink inventories.

What we'll see is motherboard+cpu combos from the likes of gigabyte and asus etc... Motherboards will have CPU already on the board. What you probably won't be able to do is buy a lower end motherboard and higher end CPU and vice versa.

BGA packaging is physically smaller (as I understand). The only growth in desktops is smaller form factors (mini itx etc...) (and I say without sources)

What's stopping mobo manufactures from adding features is mobo real estate. BGA form factor gives them that opportunity.

I'd even expect servers to go BGA.

It reduces intel's costs. If laptop, desktop and server CPUs are BGA - this reduces the need for different manufacturing lines. Servers are also getting smaller - look at the 2 servers in 1RU options from the likes of tyan/super micro.



-- Craig