Intel To Kill Off The Desktop As We Know It?

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This C|Net article has essentially rounded up all the rumors floating around the internet that claim Intel is doing away with the CPU socket. Easily one of the most telling quotes in the article is this:

Though Intel declined to comment, a source familiar with Intel's plans said the reports "have taken a lot of liberties" with the interpretation of the company's future strategy.
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Intel almost never abandons a market so I don't see them exiting the desktop market ... the only way they would ever abandon socketables for the desktop market is if their customers demanded it ... I think the worst that might happen is they might release their low end desktop processors in the BGA form factor (and that is by no means a guarantee) ... their mid range and high processors would be unlikely to switch from the socketable form factor (although if that market got too small they might switch the socket to match one of their server form factors) ... that would be my take
 
The article is wrong. I assure you that mobile processors (as in laptops) are not soldered to the circuit board. I know this from actually working on laptops.
 
Steve said:
In fairness to C|Net, they are just rounding up the rumors, not starting them.
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As a rule of thumb, anything from SemiAccurate should well, be considered, Semi Accurate. They have a bad reputation for making stuff up.
 
I suspect what might be creating the confusion in these rumors is that Intel is probably looking at a BGA form factor for tablets and phones and possibly all in ones ... that doesn't mean they want to foist that form factor on other segments that aren't asking for it ;)
 
CPUs soldered to the motherboard? What is this 1992?
 
soldering processors to a desktop board would kill the enthusiast market, where DIY gamers, for instance, like to select from a range of processors to suit their needs.
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Just because your CPU+MOBO come as a combo, that doesn't necessarily reduce your options or kill the "enthusiast" market.
 
Won't happen. You'd see the entire market of PC's completely
collapse if this happened.

Every motherboard mfg, every 3rd party card, all of it, it'd all die.

I suppose if Intel wants to do that, they could, but that would certainly
w/o a doubt give rise to a competitor.

Last I checked, the billions of PC's sold last year, yeah, not gonna happen.
 
It has been stated that Intel would go BGA for 'mainstream' boards but still produce and support sockets for the high-end boards.
 
stiltner said:
Won't happen. You'd see the entire market of PC's completely
collapse if this happened.

Every motherboard mfg, every 3rd party card, all of it, it'd all die.

I suppose if Intel wants to do that, they could, but that would certainly
w/o a doubt give rise to a competitor.

Last I checked, the billions of PC's sold last year, yeah, not gonna happen.
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While I'm always looking for a new reason to hate Intel, I kinda thought this same thing. Too many companies would get screwed with this and don't think they'd stand for it especially with AMD out there. Yeah they're still a generation behind Intel but I think a lot of people would rather buy an AMD chip if they could choose their own motherboard.
 
I could see this happening on the extremely low-end.

Most of the PCs I see flying off the shelves these days are the small, extremely low cost systems, like <$300. Most of these are cheap AMD APU systems.

So if you think about it in terms of these ultra-low-cost systems, being able to bundle everything into a single contiguous package would likely enable them to bring costs down further.

I don't really see this happening on the higher end.
 
stiltner said:
Won't happen. You'd see the entire market of PC's completely
collapse if this happened.

Every motherboard mfg, every 3rd party card, all of it, it'd all die.

I suppose if Intel wants to do that, they could, but that would certainly
w/o a doubt give rise to a competitor.

Last I checked, the billions of PC's sold last year, yeah, not gonna happen.
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This
 
damicatz said:
The article is wrong. I assure you that mobile processors (as in laptops) are not soldered to the circuit board. I know this from actually working on laptops.
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Anybody in IT would know this. The notion that we'll have soldered CPUs in desktops and laptops anytime soon is ridiculous.
 
YES intel wants to be the cpu and motherboard supplier for its 14nm chips. essentially ruling the x86 market our only hope to save us from this is amd... amd saved us from IA64 and rambus now its up to them to save us from the latest intel bullshit
 
Stiletto said:
Anybody in IT would know this. The notion that we'll have soldered CPUs in desktops and laptops anytime soon is ridiculous.
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Theres really no reason to not have soldered CPU's in laptops and low end desktops these days. Its a market segment that doesnt upgrade, and is more willing to just buy a new one when it breaks anyway.
 
maxius said:
YES intel wants to be the cpu and motherboard supplier for its 14nm chips. essentially ruling the x86 market our only hope to save us from this is amd... amd saved us from IA64 and rambus now its up to them to save us from the latest intel bullshit
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Wow. :rolleyes:
 
Fodder for the hipster "tablets are way and the light" crowd that apparently do no real work with the stupid things.
 
This does not bother me at all :) When I upgrade every few years I allways buy a new motherboard for the new cpu anyways.
 
I can't speak for tablets, but netbooks have soldered on CPU's. At least HP netbooks as I work on those.
 
I love how it all seems to be pushed towards a solid lump of tech in a box approach.

Havent these companies heard of trying to avoid landfill?

A mate of mine who fixes Apple gear has now given up as most of it now is pretty much un-repairable. As far as he is concerned within a couple of years if your Apple device/computer fails it will just have to be thrown away.

Wouldn't surprise me in Apple and others stated filling their phones and tablets with black epoxy.

I worry that most of my job will be gone in about 3-4 years. A lot of folks will have switched to purely surface mount/BGA filled tablets for their use and desktops/laptops will dwindle off.

I guess I need to start looking for a new career. IT was fun while it lasted.
 
nissanztt90 said:
Theres really no reason to not have soldered CPU's in laptops and low end desktops these days. Its a market segment that doesnt upgrade, and is more willing to just buy a new one when it breaks anyway.
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Depends ... usually those products are still tiered ... there are usually multiple speed factors available and sometimes options between i3, i5, and i7 ... unless Intel can get its customers to agree to a single configuration (highly unlikely in my opinion) it is much easier to use a socketed MB for laptops and desktops so that the specific processor needed can be inserted at the last minute based on the end user's purchase ... there are also sometimes import/export considerations that make it desirable to insert the processor after the MB has entered a market ...

I think this idea of Intel foisting an SMT form factor rather than a socketable are just people misunderstanding something or maliciously trying to spread inaccurate rumors ;)
 
daglesj said:
I love how it all seems to be pushed towards a solid lump of tech in a box approach.

Havent these companies heard of trying to avoid landfill?

A mate of mine who fixes Apple gear has now given up as most of it now is pretty much un-repairable. As far as he is concerned within a couple of years if your Apple device/computer fails it will just have to be thrown away.

Wouldn't surprise me in Apple and others stated filling their phones and tablets with black epoxy.

I worry that most of my job will be gone in about 3-4 years. A lot of folks will have switched to purely surface mount/BGA filled tablets for their use and desktops/laptops will dwindle off.

I guess I need to start looking for a new career. IT was fun while it lasted.
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What kind of "IT" do you work in... Geek Squad?
 
There have been soldered cpus for decades, I don't see what the fuzz is about.

I can see this happening for laptops and Brand desktops. I don't see it happening with high-end, enthusiasts products but even then it wouldn't be that bad.

The bad thing is that Mobos are more prone to failure than CPUs, so if your mb dies you'll have to throw a working cpu. But then it could be a good time for an upgrade.
 
Man the news outlets are hot to kill off the desktop PC this year... Of course they tend to do that every few years too. Still alive and kicking. :rolleyes:
 
Let me put on my tin foil hat to make sense of this claim...

UFO coverups! The Fed! Peak oil! Fake BC!

Yeah it all makes sense now.
 
Stoly said:
There have been soldered cpus for decades, I don't see what the fuzz is about.

I can see this happening for laptops and Brand desktops. I don't see it happening with high-end, enthusiasts products but even then it wouldn't be that bad.

The bad thing is that Mobos are more prone to failure than CPUs, so if your mb dies you'll have to throw a working cpu. But then it could be a good time for an upgrade.
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Even on most desktops in the enterprise environment it barely makes sense. Consumer stuff, definitely. Laptops, sure. Servers, SANS, NAS, Ent Desktops etc it is stupid.
 
schizrade said:
What kind of "IT" do you work in... Geek Squad?
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Nope but general domestic IT (repairs/rebuilds/servicing/upgrades/new desktops/laptops etc) forms a good chunk of my work.

I can see a lot of folks moving to tablets. Most of my customers could get by with just a tablet for what they want.

If they were all PC gamers then I'd be golden but PC gamers in the real world are a minority. Yes they are.

I enjoy looking after the small stuff becuase I am my own boss. But moving back to the enterprise sector fills me with dread. Having to deal with endless paperwork, muppet bosses, slacker co-workers etc....

Not fun.
 
This shit again...this rumour was debunked as a bad translation over the weekend.
 
daglesj said:
Nope but general domestic IT (repairs/rebuilds/servicing/upgrades/new desktops/laptops etc) forms a good chunk of my work.

I can see a lot of folks moving to tablets. Most of my customers could get by with just a tablet for what they want.

If they were all PC gamers then I'd be golden but PC gamers in the real world are a minority. Yes they are.

I enjoy looking after the small stuff becuase I am my own boss. But moving back to the enterprise sector fills me with dread. Having to deal with endless paperwork, muppet bosses, slacker co-workers etc....

Not fun.
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And in my experience, most people that are given a tablet as a laptop replacement, quickly ask for the laptop back. They are a pain when it comes to real work still.
 
There's nothing new here:
While Broadwell will be a BGA only solution, Intel is not giving up on LGA products. When Broadwell is released we will see much the same situation as we do now with Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge products.
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Broadwell is aimed at TDPs ranging from 10 watts to 57 watts. Current high end Ivy Bridge parts max out at 77 watts and do not feature any southbridge type functionality. So that means that another 5 to 7 watts are added in for the chipset when discussing basic system TDPs. So we are looking at around 87 watts for a top end product when including SATA and USB functionality. 30 watts is a pretty big deal in OEM circles. We see right off the bat that Intel is aiming this architecture at a slightly different market, or at least a changing marketplace.
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infinitywulfy said:
Man the news outlets are hot to kill off the desktop PC this year... Of course they tend to do that every few years too. Still alive and kicking. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Well they can say that when they are given iPads for free and that's all they need to write crap on.
 
One of the big issues with BGA is they are prone to failures if they get too hot. People will be heat-gunning their motherboards all the time. This also sounds a bit like Intel's failed Slot 1.. Remember when they said a PGA socket was not stable for speeds over 200MHz? I have not had time to read the article, so I'm unsure if they want to control the motherboard sales by integrating the CPU or if they will sell BGA parts to OEMs... If they sell the BGA parts, how difficult would it really be to engineer a socket that accepts a BGA CPU?
 
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