Intel Haswell: All-In-One CPU, 09/03/2012 - Your reactions

[linathael]

While Ivy-Bridge CPUs are not available yet, its successor has a name, Haswell. This new platform will be using current 22 nm engraving, however the chips design will be massively revisited to further improve performance and reduce power consumption. To save energy, Intel is planning to integrate all components required for a computer to work on the same die. So, in summary, it would include:

• Historically, a CPU was associated to a Northbridge and Southbridge chips. Teh first one was in charge of memory and port management, while the second was controlling slower bus (USB, PCI, etc.)
  
• Then Intel decided to integrate the Northbridge in its processor in addition to the graphical chipset,
  
• Now, the founder wants to have a die with all those chips on a single physical unit.

This would be a massive step forward for several reasons. First, everything will be engraved at 22 nm, and would the drain less power. Then, the design of mother board would be massively simplified, with much less circuitry, and a reduced size... leading to reduced cost (but the chips might be more expensive...).
Versions of HAs well dedicated to mobile computing should all be on a single chips format. However, Intel would offer "standard" double chips system for desktop computers. This is a pity as we could imagine having a brand new entire computer by just changing the chips... pending you could change teh chips... indeed, computer manufacturing companies would not make much money anymore, as only an upgrade of the CPU chips would be required (pending RAM support remains the same).
By linathael, original by Lionel