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So, I was doing my morning reading through fudzilla and came across this article on the Intel desktop roadmap. One particular sentence caught my eye:

It is an improved Haswell with improved packaging materials. Intel says it was "re-engineered for enhanced performance and overclocking,"...

Fudzilla took that as a fancy new box, but to me, that sounds like Intel might be going back to flux-less solder under the heatspreader. What do you think? Am I reading too far into this?

PS, other interesting news from the same article:

Intel also announced the Pentium Anniversary Edition, an unlocked series of Pentium chips based on Haswell Refresh silicon.

Could be fun if they're priced reasonably. I know that dual core CPUs are getting long in the tooth, but...

I honestly cannot believe how long the Pentium name has existed. When it debuted 20 years ago, we all giggled at its possible successor, the Sextium, and how Intel would handle that one. Seems they decided it was a brand name worth investing in long-term, as nothing hangs around 20 years in PC hardware anymore (unless Star Falcon posts about his 3.5" floppy drive, AGP and PCI slots in his current rig)

Ahem.
http://techreport.com/review/26189/inte ... f-new-cpus

Damage wrote:

Devil's Canyon will have redesigned packaging and an improved TIM meant to increase overclocking potential.

And:

Damage wrote:

This anniversary edition looks like it could be interesting, though, for a couple of reasons. One, some Pentium chips recently gained support for Intel's QuickSync video transcoding engine thanks to a driver update, and the anniversary edition will benefit from that change. Two, the anniversary edition Pentium will be unlocked to enable overclocking.

It is basically the same press conference.

Flying Fox wrote:

Ahem.

I swear I didn't see the article up on TR before I posted.....trickery. You can go ahead and delete this thread.

DPete27 wrote:

I swear I didn't see the article up on TR before I posted.....trickery. You can go ahead and delete this thread.

Eh, no worries. We can discuss the news in question if people feel like it.

This is what a clipped from another site.....
At GDC, Intel announced a backpedal from its plans to eventually reshape desktop CPUs into components that come hardwired to the motherboards across the line, by announcing three new CPU families. It includes the Haswell-E HEDT platform, Broadwell performance platform, and Devil's Canyon. The three are expected to launch in reverse order, beginning with Devil's Canyon. A variant of existing "Haswell" silicon in the LGA1150 package, Devil's Canyon is codename for a breed of hand-picked chips with "insane" overclocking potential. In addition to binned dies, the chips feature a performance-optimized TIM between the die and the integrated heatspreader (IHS). The dies will be placed on special "high tolerance" packages, with equally "special" LGA contact points. The chips will be designed with higher voltage tolerance levels. Devil's Canyon is expected to branded under the existing Core i7-4xxx series, possibly with "Extreme" brand extension. It will be compatible with motherboards based on the Z97 chipset.

Next up, is "Broadwell." A successor to Haswell, Broadwell is its optical shrink to Intel's new 14-nanometer silicon fab process, with minor improvements to IPC, new power-management features, and likely added instruction sets, much like what "Ivy Bridge" was to "Sandy Bridge." It will take advantage of the new process to step up CPU and iGPU clock speeds. Broadwell is expected to launch in the second half of 2014. Lastly, there's Haswell-E. Built in the company's next-gen LGA2011 socket (incompatible with the current LGA2011), this HEDT (high-end desktop) processor will feature up to eight CPU cores, up to 15 MB of L3 cache, a 48-lane PCI-Express 3.0 root complex, and a quad-channel DDR4 integrated memory controller (IMC). Intel is also planning to launch a socketed variant of the Core i7-4770R, which is based on the company's Haswell GT3e silicon, which features the Iris Pro 5200 graphics core, with 40 execution units, and 128 MB of L4 cache.

It doesn't sound like it to me. If they were bringing back solder, then they specifically would've said so. "Improved TIM" sounds like either some metallic paste or soldier alternative. Also it'd probably cost too much to retool the assembly line just to make a single consumer chip model with solder.

If ya want chips with solder then look to Haswell-E parts. My question is now that Has-E will finally bring 8-core chips to the high end, will there be a six-core model cheaper than the current 4930K? Or even an 8-core model at the 4930K price?

I care little for the method, as long as it solves the problem. It can be unicorn farts for all I care.

Kougar wrote:

If they were bringing back solder, then they specifically would've said so. "Improved TIM" sounds like either some metallic paste or soldier alternative.

The pessimist in me agrees with you.

Kougar wrote:

it'd probably cost too much to retool the assembly line just to make a single consumer chip model with solder. If ya want chips with solder then look to Haswell-E parts.

Considering they used to use solder for Sandy (and Ivy?) and they still do for Ivy-E/Haswell-E, I doubt it would require that much re-tooling. That same reason is why I suspect (hope) they're bringing back solder for consumer chips instead of using a different paste-like TIM.

DPete27 wrote:

Kougar wrote:

it'd probably cost too much to retool the assembly line just to make a single consumer chip model with solder. If ya want chips with solder then look to Haswell-E parts.

Considering they used to use solder for Sandy (and Ivy?) and they still do for Ivy-E/Haswell-E, I doubt it would require that much re-tooling. That same reason is why I suspect (hope) they're bringing back solder for consumer chips instead of using a different paste-like TIM.

Well I could very well be wrong, but I figure Haswell is processed on separate lines from their "E" chips and Xeons. But it's possible they're run on the same lines as the E3 Xeons, and as those supposedly use solder you may be right.

Kougar wrote:

I figure Haswell is processed on separate lines from their "E" chips and Xeons.

Oh, no. There's no doubt in my mind that they're all on separate lines given Intel's manufacturing scale. I'm only saying they already have/had the tooling for solder, its just a matter of "inserting" those machines back into the line (easier said than done, I know). I suppose it would be easiest to load a different kind of goop into the TIM hopper though...