Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) has postponed the mass production of its next-generation processor dubbed as “Broadwell-E” to the first-quarter of 2016, says a report from the Chinese website VR-Zone. The company has not revealed the exact reason, but it could be an issue with the company’s 14nm process technology along with the lack of competition on the market for ultra-high-end desktop platforms.
Broadwell-E production delayed
Braodwell-E is a microprocessor for high-end desktops, and is similar to the current Core i7-5800-/5900 series “Haswell-E” chips, and could also be drop-in compatible with LGA2011 v3 mainboards based on the Intel X99 core-logic. Intel stated that the new HEDT CPUs will come with six or eight cores, up to 20MB of last-level-cache, quad-channel DDR4 memory, PCI Express 3.0 lanes, 140W thermal design power and so on.
However, the new class of chip will not be launched till the first quarter of 2016, according to a Chinese VR-Zone website. Intel is looking to offer samples of the “Broadwell-E” to its partners in the second-quarter of 2015, and the chip is expected to be available by the 36th week of 2015, and the final qualification sample should hit the shelves on the 47th week of next year.
AMD to challenge Intel
Braodwell–E is a step ahead of Haswell-E as far as its features are concerned. The core counts of the microprocessor will remain the same, with the same chipset and same socket, but it is expected that the performance will better by 10% compared to Haswell-E due to higher clock speeds, IPC or a combination of both. However, rival AMD is also launching its Zen core in early 2016 posing a challenge to both Skylake and Braodwell CPUs. AMD is expected to be significantly improved as the CEO confirmed that the next-generation product Zen would be built on FinFet.
Intel is the largest manufacturer of processors and often makes life difficult for competitors such as AMD. Owing to Intel’s dominating presence, AMD nearly always has to compete with a less advanced process node. This makes the news that AMD’s brand new “Zen” CPU architecture product is at least equal to Intel’s Broadwell-E a pretty big deal in the industry.
