If you were reading the news last month, you might have noticed those slightly worrying rumors about Intel ditching socketed CPUs in 2014. Intel hasn’t sought to confirm or deny the speculation. AMD, however, has now chimed in, saying its plans are quite different.
Here’s the statement we received this afternoon from AMD’s Chris Hook:
AMD has a long history of supporting the DIY and enthusiast desktop market with socketed CPUs & APUs that are compatible with a wide range of motherboard products from our partners. That will continue through 2013 and 2014 with the "Kaveri" APU and FX CPU lines. We have no plans at this time to move to BGA only packaging and look forward to continuing to support this critical segment of the market.
As the company that introduced new types of BGA packages in ultrathin platforms several years ago, and today offers BGA-packaged processors for everything from ultrathin notebooks to all-in-one desktops, to embedded applications and tablets, we certainly understand Intel’s enthusiasm for the approach. But for the desktop market, and the enthusiasts with whom AMD has built its brand, we understand what matters to them and how we can continue to bring better value and a better experience.
That’s reassuring, to some degree, to know at least one of the two major CPU vendors isn’t abandoning us.
Of course, given AMD’s recent struggles, it’s hard to predict what the company’s product offerings will look like in 2014—and whether enthusiasts can really expect compelling desktop solutions. There have been whispers about AMD possibly putting itself up for sale (though AMD itself denies these allegations), and just last week, AMD took out the corporate equivalent of a home equity loan to free up cash. The chipmaker has also said it intends to deliver ARM-based processors alongside x86 chips for servers in 2014.
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