PC enthusiasts have a number of new hardware introductions to look forward to in the second half of 2014, as revealed at the 2014 Intel Solutions Summit held in Singapore this week. Specifically, they can look forward to even more powerful PCs which push the envelope of technology for gaming and other applications.
Lisa Graff, Vice President, PC Client Group, and General Manager, Deskto4p Client Platform Group, Intel, shared during the event that a Haswell Intel Core processor codenamed “Devil’s Canyon” will be out mid-2014. Haswell processors debuted in June 2013 and are based on the 22 nm manufacturing process. The chip has been “souped-up” with different packaging and thermal materials, Graff said.
Another Haswell processor that was formerly available with six cores, will be available as the Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition with eight cores and faster DDR4 memory. In the lower end space, Intel is celebrating 20 years of Pentium processors with an unlocked Pentium anniversary edition that can be overclocked. It will be available in the same timeframe, Graff said.
Graff also mentioned the first Iris graphics on DT-socketed CPUs, starting with an unlocked Intel 5th generation Intel Core processor with the Intel Iris Pro graphics technology, but did not give an expected timeframe for the products. Fourth-generation Intel Core processors with Iris Pro are already available from the company.
Fifth-generation processors from Intel are codenamed “Broadwell” and “Braswell”. Both are based on 14nm manufacturing processes. Broadwell processors are designed for applications from fanless 2 in 1 system to enthusiast desktops while Braswell will be seen in entry level systems.