Intel’s Apollo Lake To Make Replaceable RAM Obsolete

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Intel’s Apollo Lake CPUs may make replaceable RAM an obsolete thing going forward. The latest rumors from Taiwan’s notebook supply chain indicate that notebooks based on those processors may have on-board soldered memory designs, according to Digital Trends.

On-board soldering a drawback

OEMs are pushing to make an even lighter, thinner form factor in their laptop products, and this move to solder memory is one of the adverse effects. This means that when customers buy an Apollo Lake-based notebook, they will be locked at a specific memory configuration, the report notes.

Until now, a notebook’s memory could be upgraded by removing a specific cover on the backside to get access to the memory compartment, but now, chips are being soldered into place on the motherboard. If the memory is on-board, they cannot be replaced, the report notes.

Notebook motherboards supporting Intel’s Apollo Lake chips will not have any memory bank slots, thus reducing the total amount of hardware packed into the super-thin and light form factor. This also decreases the manufacturing costs slightly for the OEM. Intel aims to build computers differently

In April during its 2016 developer forum in Shenzhen, Intel officially unveiled its less expensive 14nm Apollo Lake Atom system-on-chip (SoC) platform aimed at notebooks, AIO PCs, tablets, and hybrid devices. At that time, the chip maker said that OEMs creating devices based on Apollo Lake processors could use a smaller battery because of the increased performance of Atom, balanced with less power consumption. The Apollo Lake processor supports a MIPI camera to assist in thinning the overall form factor of the device, the report notes.

During IFA 2016 in Berlin next week, Acer will introduce two new ultra-thin notebooks, the Aspire S 15 and the Aspire S 17. Citing supply chain sources, Digital Trends also indicates that HP, Lenovo, Dell, and Asus will release all-in-one PCs and ultra-thin notebooks based on Apollo Lake within the next four months.

Intel believes it is time to begin making PCs differently, and it wants to sell the new hardware tech needed to do it. Last week, Intel executives showed off two new technologies for moving data around or storing it. This tech could change the established ways of designing computers. The new tech is basically targeted at big data centers that power websites and mobile apps and incoming ideas in artificial intelligence.

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