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Is Broadwell going to be a hex core for mainstream?

K

Kippa

Senior member
I know that Haswell will be 8 core later in 2014, and was wondering if Broadwell is going to be a 6 or more core for mainstream when it is released later in 2014.
 
I'm beginning to doubt if Intel will ever go higher on the mainstream platform. I guess there's just no incentive. :/
 
Techhog said:
I'm beginning to doubt if Intel will ever go higher on the mainstream platform. I guess there's just no incentive. :/
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We'll see what happens at 10nm, but it's a no for Broadwell, as ShintaiDK pointed out, and I doubt Skylake will be any different. I'm guessing that @ 10nm, HEDT CPUs ('-E' series) may start at 8 cores, if that happens, then it might make sense for Intel to use a six core design for consumer CPUs and cut it down to make lower power alternatives. But I'm just speculating.

The 14nm and 10nm shrinks are opening up allot of opportunities for what Intel can implement in silicon and I think we will start seeing some interesting changes. If we are lucky, then there will be interesting changes for gamers and enthusiasts and not just more of the endless low power stuff we got @ 22nm.
 
ShintaiDK said:
Haswell-E will have 8 cores.
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Yes, but it will start with six (as opposed to the previous four core 'E' series). Once the 'E' series starts with 8 cores, there will be a gap between Intel's consumer CPU series and HEDT - one they may want to fill.
 
Ajay said:
Yes, but it will start with six (as opposed to the previous four core 'E' series). Once the 'E' series starts with 8 cores, there will be a gap between Intel's consumer CPU series and HEDT - one they may want to fill.
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With how long they've been at 4-6, that's probably a good 5 years away if we're lucky. They may abandon the consumer desktop line completely by then.
 
Techhog said:
With how long they've been at 4-6, that's probably a good 5 years away if we're lucky. They may abandon the consumer desktop line completely by then.
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I don't think so. Eventually, with MCDRAM and iGPU on a smaller node Intel can make a big core x86 processor that's not only an SoC but also a good gaming CPU/iGPU. So I don't see the the big core consumer CPU going anywhere this decade.

As far as the number of cores, at 10nm even a quad core i7 is going to have a small die - at 7nm it will be tiny. There is plenty of room for Intel to add a variety of features to help make PCs more valuable. PC CPUs have great margins, so I'm sure Intel will do it's best to keep this segment as healthy as possible.
 
Ajay said:
I don't think so. Eventually, with MCDRAM and iGPU on a smaller node Intel can make a big core x86 processor that's not only an SoC but also a good gaming CPU/iGPU. So I don't see the the big core consumer CPU going anywhere this decade.

As far as the number of cores, at 10nm even a quad core i7 is going to have a small die - at 7nm it will be tiny. There is plenty of room for Intel to add a variety of features to help make PCs more valuable. PC CPUs have great margins, so I'm sure Intel will do it's best to keep this segment as healthy as possible.
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They still seem to think it's worth it to have multiple masks for desktop chips.

I can see them going all the way down to 1 mask for desktop chips before they get rid of desktop.

You have to remember that they are a fab company, and as long as they can justify the masks they will make desktop chips.

They could also just use the exact same chips for the desktop as for the laptop (something they do to an extent now).

Desktop is not going away because, as many have pointed out, its still very profitable and will be for the foreseeable future.
 
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Phones will be 8 core before intel moves to 8 core. And yet they wonder why they are about to be steamrolled off the map.
 
sm625 said:
Phones will be 8 core before intel moves to 8 core. And yet they wonder why they are about to be steamrolled off the map.
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Intel isnt being steamrolled anywhere.

Not to mention 8 cores in phones is pointless and only serves to make unware buyers...buy.

Its not like the coding problems is any different with ARM. Its the exact same issues. Apple uses dualcores for the same reason. And they are not locked in the PR ARMs race that goes on between Android makers.
 
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Ajay said:
Yes, but it will start with six (as opposed to the previous four core 'E' series). Once the 'E' series starts with 8 cores, there will be a gap between Intel's consumer CPU series and HEDT - one they may want to fill.
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Or they could be intending to continue the current paradigm where the mainstream socket has core count parity with the low end HEDT SKU. Granted I doubt such will be the case, but I also didn't expect Broadwell to reappear in the mainstream desktop socket next year.
 
Or they could be intending to continue the current paradigm where the mainstream socket has core count parity with the low end HEDT SKU. Granted I doubt such will be the case, but I also didn't expect Broadwell to reappear in the mainstream desktop socket next year.
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Or they will just drop it and just have the mainstream line use Atom?
 
sm625 said:
Phones will be 8 core before intel moves to 8 core. And yet they wonder why they are about to be steamrolled off the map.
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Intel are actually in a pretty commanding position. Shintai is actually right for once

More cores in phones are stupid as well by the way, for the exact reasons AMDs core strategy is stupid for desktops.
 
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