Intel ‘Broadwell’ chips will be available for two weeks in 2014

Brian Krzanich, chief executive officer of Intel Corp., once said that the company’s upcoming microprocessors code-named Broadwell would be available by the holiday season and “not at the last second of holiday.” According to a revised launch schedule of Intel’s 14nm chips, the Broadwell family of central processing units will be available for two weeks this calendar year.

For an unknown reason Intel decided to postpone the launch window of the Core M “Broadwell” microprocessors to the ww51 2014 – ww03 2015 (late December – late-January) from the ww37 – ww40 (September, 2014), according to a new schedule published by Chinese VR-Zone web-site. If devices based on the Core M central processing units emerge on the market on the 51st week of the year (late December), they will only be available in retail for no more than a couple of weeks in calendar 2014.

The first Intel Core M processors based on the Broadwell micro-architecture, previously known as the code-named Broadwell-Y chips, are the most energy-efficient central processing units in the family. The initial Core M chips feature two x86 cores with the Hyper-Threading technology, the Intel HD Graphics core with 24 execution units and various enhancements, 3MB of L3 cache, dual-channel DDR3 memory controller as well as a core-logic placed on the same piece of substrate as the processor. The Core M (BDW-Y 2+2) chips will have scenario design power of 4.5W – 11.5W. Intel’s partners will use the new chips for 2-in-1s, high-end tablets or ultra-thin laptops.

It is interesting to note that during the ww51 2014 – ww03 2015 launch window the world’s largest chipmaker also plans to release the Broadwell-U (BDW-U 2+2) microprocessors, which will feature two cores with HT, Intel HD graphics with 24 execution units, 3MB of cache, dual-channel DDR3 DRAM controller, integrated core-logic and thermal design power between 15W and 28W. In addition, the firm is projected to release Celeron- and Pentium-branded Broadwell (BDW 2+1) chips with two cores and a simplistic graphics engine. More powerful Broadwell-U (BDW-U 2+3) chips for higher-performance notebooks will be available starting from the 5th week of next year.

While there are no official explanations why Intel decided to postpone the launch of the Core M “Broadwell-Y” microprocessors from September to December, it is likely that this was done because of the yield issues with the company's 14nm process technology. In a bid to hand-pick low-power BDW-Y chips with all units functional Intel has to bin (test) more processors than originally expected. As a result, it takes more time to get the amount of chips the company needs for a commercial launch. A side benefit of this is Intel’s ability to release the Broadwell-U and the low-cost Broadwell-U 2+1 chips along with the premium Core M offerings.

Intel did not comment on the news-story.

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KitGuru Says: The new information from Intel’s documents reaffirms that Intel has major problems with its 14nm process technology and/or the Broadwell design of microprocessors. As a consequence of such issues mass availability of the new chips slips into 2015.

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