Published in PC Hardware

Broadwell delay all but confirmed

by on18 February 2014



Slipped a quarter

Broadwell, Intel’s first 14nm architecture, was set to launch sometime in the third quarter of 2014, but now it appears that it has been pushed back by a quarter.

The news was originally broken by Digitimes, but now it has been confirmed by VR Zone China, with a mobile roadmap slide in tow. The slide indicates that the first Broadwell parts will launch in the fourth quarter, with more scheduled for Q1 2015. This basically means Intel won’t have much to talk about this year in the mainstream and high-end consumer segment, apart from Haswell refresh parts. These revamped Haswell chips should start showing up in the second quarter.

The third quarter should be marked by the first Broadwell parts, as well as new ULV chips for ultrabooks. These Y-series chips have a 11.5W TDP and they are still 22nm parts. Broadwell will replace U-series parts from Q4 onwards.

However, Broadwell will replace Haswell parts in just three U-series 15W price tiers in Q4. It will take over four more tiers in Q1. As for the U-series 28W lineup, the first Broadwell parts won’t show up this year. They are coming in Q1 2015.

All in all we can’t say we are very surprised by Intel’s decision. After all the company already canned Broadwell in the desktop space in favour of Haswell refresh parts. In addition, Intel recently decided not to go ahead with the completion of a partially constructed 14nm fab in the US, citing weak demand.

This is also quite good news for AMD, as it gives it an extra quarter to close the performance gap with Carizzo APUs.

You can check out the slides here

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