Intel reportedly preparing soldered desktop chips after all

[DKT27]

There’s been a bit of he-said/she-said going on with regards to Intel’s future desktop roadmaps. Last year, news broke that the company was planning to move to soldered ball grid array (BGA) mounts for its desktop processors. This didn’t sit well with enthusiasts or computer repair businesses, both of whom value the ability to swap CPUs. Intel denied that it was planning any such shift and affirmed its commitment to socketed processors “for the foreseeable future.”

New evidence (a “trusted source,” according to Tech Report) suggests Intel is actually planning a bifurcated strategy. Starting with Broadwell, certain motherboards will be available with soldered processors — presumably those intended for small set-top boxes or other diminutive form factors.

Traditional desktop processors won’t vanish, they just won’t be the only option anymore. As an enthusiast, that’s fine with me — I’ve done CPU upgrades to most of the computers that I own (and some of the ones I’ve built for other people), but statistically, most people don’t bother.

BGA devices use a small grid of soldered balls rather than pins to attach to the motherboard.

As a person who has done a great deal of troubleshooting on various systems, I’m still less-than enthused about the switch. It’s not that CPUs fail particularly often — in fifteen years, I’ve seen fewer CPU failures than any other type of hardware — but being able to swap out a processor is a useful way to confirm what a problem isn’t. It’s typically easier (and faster) to pull a CPU than to swap an entire motherboard.

These aren’t insurmountable obstacles; laptops have been using BGA sockets for years and RMA costs haven’t driven major vendors out of business. Repairing a desktop, even with a BGA-mounted CPU, would remain an order of magnitude easier than cracking open a laptop to replace components. Still, the move could put pressure on small shops with fewer resources to handle the task, and it raises the question of who pays for the RMA on a dead CPU — the motherboard vendor or Intel?

AMD has previously responded to this topic by reaffirming its commitment to CPU sockets. The company has no plans to move to BGA products for desktops and its upcoming Richland APUs (demonstrated at CES 2013) will be compatible with existing FM2 motherboards that support Trinity.

According to Gary Silcott, “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.”

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[anakin206]

What Intel plan to do is an involution in PCs.

[Ambrocious]

What Intel plan to do is an involution in PCs.

Intel knows this is a bad deal for us, but it is a GOOD deal for them when it comes to ignorant customers who will buy it when they start advertising it as "the next best thing". My friends grandma went out and bought Windows 8 even though both my friend and I specifically told her that was a very bad idea. She had asked my friend what would be good to get, but she was conned into buying Windows 8 at Wal-Mart anyways.

These soldered desktop chips are just one grand example of the devolved products being offered to people as a measure of constraint and as a partiality of taking advantage of the more "lame minded" people. This move is finacially predatory since no educated person would willing buy a motherboard that can't be easily worked on if ever the chip needs fixed. Wild animals will pick off the sick or the stupid, this model is converted oviously when talking about greedy corporations.

The only way that I can think that this would be a good idea is if they made this a biomechanical computer. The Intel Chips could be remote physically upgraded by the manufacture via special encrypted software command codes (the whole proccess could take a few hours). Since this is a biomechanical computer, the whole proccess can be done when the computer is shut off, allowing the hybridized "living" organisms to rewrite the chips safely. That form of technology is still new in many respects and Im not even sure if it has been built yet, but there is just one great idea for you.

Bio-mechanical computer chips that can be physically upgraded without the need of ordering a new chip at all! Just think of the possibilities...and the dangers. Google biomechanical computers and read up on it. Here is a fascinating article abot biomechanical computers: How DNA Computers Will Work

And then we have this: Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram

[dcs18]

My friends grandma went out and bought Windows 8 even though both my friend and I specifically told her that was a very bad idea. She had asked my friend what would be good to get . . . . .

I'm glad an old and wise woman refused to permit the spirit of ignorance to possess her. :yes:

[calguyhunk]

Meh! Everything is getting dumbed down. DIY is getting out of fashion in the name of progress, evolution, usability and intuitiveness - whatever the hell that is :frusty:

Forget 'bout the i-products, even flagship class leading Android tabs come with the glass screen soldered onto the LCD panel, rendering it un-repairable in case of breakage :( Lumias come with non-removable batteries and the entire Nexus line up come with non-expandable storage :(

If this is what they're doing to Linux derivatives - the last vestige for the Geeks - we certainly cannot be blaming the biggest proponents of dumbed down computing technology - MS, Intel, Apple :spank:

Nothing has dumbed down tech more than 'accessibility' and 'usability' that are being bandied about now more so than ever with more and more new people joining the internet eco-system for the first time especially with the help of cheap mobile devices ;)

P.S. - This is exactly when I wish I had a double digit (or even low triple digit) IQ. The world would have certainly been a more agreeable place to live in ;)