A Closer Look at Broadwell & its New Small Form Factor Package
by Anand Lal Shimpi on September 11, 2013 9:53 PM EST- Posted in
- CPUs
- Intel
- Trade Shows
- IDF 2013
- Broadwell
First, a quick recap. There are four different Haswell versions: D, M, ULT and ULX. D is for desktop, M is for mobile, ULT is for Ultrabooks and ULX is for low power tablet designs. The latter carries the Y-series branding.
Broadwell, the 14nm successor to Haswell, will likely be available in similar flavors (there's still some uncertainty on whether or not we'll see a desktop Broadwell though). Earlier today Intel flashed a Broadwell sample up on stage at IDF and I noticed its smaller package compared to the single chip Haswell solution. I managed to get some hands on time with the Broadwell chip that was shown off.
Broadwell is pin compatible with Haswell. In the pic above (and below) the two chips on the right are pin compatible Broadwell and Haswell ULT samples. The chip on the left however is a newer, smaller form factor version. This smaller package will only be offered for Broadwell ULX (Y-series) parts.
From left to right: Broadwell SFF, Broadwell ULT/ULX and Haswell ULT/ULX
Given that Broadwell will likely usher in a new era of hybrid tablet/notebook devices, I expect this smaller package was built at the request of one or more large OEMs looking to offer a premium tablet/2-in-1 option but were put off by the board area requirements of Haswell ULX vs. a traditional ARM solution. By the looks of it, this smaller Broadwell still won't be quite as small as what you can presently get from the ARM camp but it's probably a very useful update.
I'm running between meetings now - but anyone want to use the photos here and our Haswell die area info to come up with an estimate for Broadwell SFF package size and Broadwell die size? :)
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Novacius - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
There is no eDRAM in the ULT/ULX space, at least not yet. The top chip in all three packages is the chipset/PCH.Goty - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
Ahh, good point.mikk - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
Yes I'm sure and there is no edram, the smaller thing is a chipset. Apparently still on 32nm.Novacius - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
Round about 82mm² seems correct for this 2+2 version.jrs77 - Thursday, September 12, 2013 - link
"...there's still some uncertainty on whether or not we'll see a desktop Broadwell though."No, we won't see a Broadwell for desktop. The 14nm part for the desktop will be released under the name Skylake and most likely we'll have to wait for this until late 2014 and much more possible early 2015.
wallysb01 - Thursday, September 19, 2013 - link
I can't remember where I read this, but I thought I heard that intel was going to instead go the path of a "significant update" to Haswell in 2014. By that I assume we'll see some small to modest clock bumps.Impulses - Friday, September 13, 2013 - link
What can we realistically expect from this new era of hybrid devices using Broadwell that we haven't already seen or hinted at already? Honest question, I was hyped for all these hybrid concepts initially but I still see myself favoring a regular laptop + cheap/small tablet... (actually went from an OG Transformer to a Nexus 7) Will Broadwell and/or this smaller package finally enable slim fanless designs that are no bulkier than the ARM tablet designs we have now?vishal_ec - Friday, September 13, 2013 - link
just the image comparison shows ~ 60% smaller lower chipUnfortunately the top chip (PCH ?) remains the same :(